Chuck Close / Jerry Spagnoli Daguerreotype Portraits - What Kind of Strobes?

[thomashobbs]

Does anyone know what kind of strobe lights were used by Chuck Close and Jerry Spagnoli in their Daguerreotype portraits?

There was a thread here a couple of years ago that briefly mentioned nuclear blasts and burning hair but nothing more specific.

I found a report online from someone who took Spagnoli's workshop and said that his process has an ISO of .0002 and that to get an exposure in open shade at f3.5 requires 3 minutes.

That's a lot of light!

Are there commercially available strobe lights that produce that kind of output?


Links:

Chuck Close thread from 2007:
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ht=chuck+close

Jerry Spagnoli workshop report:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/DigitalC...002/essay.html

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Mercury developed daguerreotypes are more like .05 ASA, while the Becquerel plates that you found reference to online are about .005ASA. Jerry told me once that he used 4800w/s heads quite close to the subject, I can't recall how many, but perhaps you could figure it out from reflections in the victims' eyes.

I recall also an interview with Jerry, Chuck and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders when Jerry mentions his lighting set-up. Maybe in W? The one a few years back with the daguerreotypes of Kate Moss on the front.

[John T]

I would also guess that the "Non UV coated" flashtubes some companies offer as options would work better for Dags. I experimented with them for collodion plates and gained some speed since both the daguerreotypes and wet plate are very uv sensitive (compared to visible light).

[Steven Barall]

Call Jerry and ask him. 212-924-5470. Good luck.