Beautiful Contemporary Daguerreotypes

[Richard Wasserman]

https://lenscratch.com/2021/09/jon-cox-the-states-project-delaware/ DVFJLKK,.;;./

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Interesting, they don't really look like Daguerreotypes. I don't see any of the tell-tale signs that even the best 19th and 21st century plates have, like polishing marks, specks of mercury amalgam in the shadows, or solarization. I also don't see the signs of a really fast LF lens being used at its widest aperture.

Not to say they aren't Daguerreotypes, they just don't look like them. Maybe they were digital negative contact-printed plates?

[Richard Wasserman]

Interesting, they don't really look like Daguerreotypes. I don't see any of the tale-tale signs that even the best 19th and 21st century plates have, like polishing marks, specks of mercury amalgam in the shadows, or solarization. I also don't see the signs of a really fast LF lens being used at its widest aperture.

Not to say they aren't Daguerreotypes, they just don't look like them. Maybe they were digital negative contact-printed plates?

I was wondering the same thing, they do look too perfect. Contact printing digital Daguerreotypes is a thing? There is so much I don't know...

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Contact printing Daguerreotypes or even enlarging on a Daguerreotype plate is possible with the right (blue or UV) light source. Daguerreotype can stand much longer exposures than wet-plate because, well, they aren't wet.

[Richard Wasserman]

Thanks Jason. Can you point me at information as to how contact printed Daguerreotypes are produced? I couldn't find anything useful

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

There is nothing I know of on the web. Jerry Spagnoli used to teach how to do this in his workshops (using some sort of long-gone Agfa material), but no one I know does this regularly.

[Richard Wasserman]

There is nothing I know of on the web. Jerry Spagnoli used to teach how to do this in his workshops (using some sort of long-gone Agfa material), but no one I know does this regularly.

I guess that explains why I couldn't find anything. Thanks!

[paulbarden]

The photos used to illustrate the article are not Daguerrotypes - they don't demonstrate the typical spectral sensitivity of that medium. Here's a clue in the article:

"The Ese’Eja People of the Amazon: Connected by a Thread, includes photographs and daguerreotypes made by Andrew Bale and Jon Cox" (emphasis mine)

These are traditional silver medium images. I'm sure the two do make Daguerrotypes, but that's not what the article is using.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I totally agree that these don't "demonstrate the typical spectral sensitivity of that medium," but underneath some of the photographs there is a copyright and credit claiming they are...

"©Andrew Bale and Jon Cox, Jorge, Daguerreotype"

As a side note, if these were contact Daguerreotypes they wouldn't necessarily show the blue-only spectral sensitivity, since the colors would have already been translated to black and white by a panchromatic or digital medium. Again, I agree, they don't look like Daguerreotypes.

[Jim Noel]

False claims are made by someone every day.

[Maris Rusis]

Daguerreotypes are laterally reversed images. But look at the caps worn in a couple of the portraits that show lettering not laterally reversed. Not daguerreotypes.

[Drew Wiley]

Compelling portraits regardless. I too am skeptical that what is being shown is D-type. But I admit I don't keep pace with any potential modern tweaks on that process. Mercury is not my cup of tea.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Daguerreotypes are laterally reversed images. But look at the caps worn in a couple of the portraits that show lettering not laterally reversed. Not daguerreotypes.

Well spotted! In the 19th century mirror prisms were occasionally used on landscapes to correct the reversal, but probably not here. And beating my dead horse, if these were contact prints they could be reversed.

[jnantz]

Beautiful Portraits !
Thanks for the link --
John