From Ken Nelson to accompany the images he sent in:

Friday, September 18: The turnout for the presentations and Visite Inaugurale was very impressive! By the time the crowd left the Salle Daguerre auditorium (photo 1, from upper left) and headed for the Museum across the street, it had swelled to well over 100 people, possibly many more. Once in the galleries in the Hôtel de Malestroit, the crowd fanned out to converse and look at the show (photos 2-5.) Co-curator Margaret Calvarin offered her welcome to the gathering in the main foyer for both the Contemporary Daguerreotype and Diorama of Bry-sur-Marne segments of the show (photos 6 and 7.) I speak very little French, but Margaret’s hands and face spoke the universal language of excitement and welcome.

Then we all adjourned to a very large tent in the garden (the weather, however, was perfect.) There were more welcomes by Jean-Pierre Spilbauer, Mayor of Bry-sur-Marne, and Co Curator Marc Kereun, the modern daguerreotypist’s Man-of-the-Hour. The assembled crowd was then treated to a feast of hors-d’oeuvres, desserts, apéritifs and champagne (photos 8-10. Marc converses with Eneida Odriozola of Spain in photo 11.) I tried to meet as many of my daguerreian colleagues as I could during the reception, but it was so crowded that navigation was often difficult! Much of the crowd, including me, lingered for almost two hours until the afternoon program was ready to begin.

Later in the afternoon, Jerry Spagnoli presented one of his popular demonstrations of making a Becquerel-process daguerreotype. Jerry certainly knows how to “work” a crowd, as can be seen in the two last photos. The demonstration started with everyone in their seats (photo 12), but by the time Jerry was ready to gild his plate, everyone was on their feet, pressing in for a closer look!

Personally, I was humbled by the overwhelming hospitality and enthusiasm shown by the staff of the Museum and the City and people of Bry-sur-Marne. It seemed like no expense was spared in order to make us feel welcome and honored, and to make our daguerreotypes look their best. My sincere thanks, and I’m sure I speak for all the daguerreotypists represented, either in person or by their work.

Ken Nelson

Ken Nelson has sent in these images of the official opening of the exhibit and Jerry Spagnoli’s workshop in Bry-sur-Marne.

Congratulations to the daguerreian world come from Marc Kereun, President of the Daguerre Association:

“First of all, I wanted to warmly thank all participants in this memorable daguerreian event. This exhibition could not be a such large demonstration of the richness of artistic creation using Louis Daguerre process today, if daguerrians authors hadn’t have participated in lending their artworks. I would like to give many special thanks to cdags.org web site through which the communication has started and be maintained during the preparation.

The day of inaugural visit, I was very touched by the presence of many daguerreian authors from any countries, seeing the joy on their eyes.

To open the ceremony, I remembered to the people the 170th birthday of the announcement of the Daguerre’s daguerreotype process by Arago, making us the heirs (“héritiers”, in French) of Louis Daguerre. The emotion was high when the Major of Bry-sur-Marne told his inaugural speech, thanking all international participants and showing that this exhibition is a part of projects centered on Louis Daguerre’s inventions, of which includes the restoration of the Diorama.

So, each was persuaded by the quality of pieces, the diversity of the authors and of treated subjects, as well as the emphasizing of daguerreotypes by a specialized illumination. In this way, visitors understand the concrete place taken by the contemporary daguerreotype as a strong and original medium in the artistic photography.

Finally, this two inaugural days we were very interested by conferences on daguerreotype and diorama history, and the demo of Jerry Spagnoli shooting in daguerreotypes outdoors views of Hotel de Malestroit and Church of Bry-sur-Marne. The dags given by Jerry Spagnoli are displayed in cabinet during the exhibition which continue until October, 18th 2009”

Marc has also sent more images of the exhibit, taken on a tripod, which have been added to the exhibits main page on this site. More are to come of the individual artworks on display and will be added to the artists page of the exhibit.

Some numbers – there are 182 daguerreotypes on display by 44 exhibitors (sadly one had his parcel sent back by customs and the pieces did not make in time for the official opening) from 16 countries. This will add a few to the artist link list on the left of this webpage, bringing it up to 69 documented daguerreotypists.

Over 30 images of the exhibit are now on the exhibits main page, this will get updated and modified as more come to light, to provide the best record we can to document the event. The main page has general views of the exhibit but there is also a gallery page showing individual artists works with a further 48 images. Some of these like the attending daguerreotypists in the exhibitors group below need identifying, if you can help or have more images to add contact admin

Daguerreotypists:
Top Row (left to right): Christophe Dutoit (Suisse), Jerry Spagnoli (USA), Tom Young (USA), Ken Nelson (USA), Marc Kereun (France), Jeanne-Pierre Spilbauer (Mayor of Bry-sur-Marne), Domique Genty (France), Bailun (Russia), Takashi Arai (Japan), Rossano Bertolo (Italy), Jérôme Monnier (France), Åke Hultman (Sweden)
Bottom Row (left to right): C. Kunin (exhibitor), Eneida Odriozola (Spain), Esteban Naves (Spain), Alfonso de Castro (Spain), Jonathan Danforth (USA), Sean Culver (USA)

thanks to Rob McElroy for sharing this

Découvrez Des daguerréotypes contemporains exposés à Bry-sur-Marne sur Culturebox !

Marc has sent in images of the Exhibit in Bry, A fine achievement and a major event of modern daguerreian era, congratulations to all. More images to be posted later this week of the official opening.

Entries for the exhibit in Bry sur Marne close on the 15th of June and so far there are 30 exhibitors from 13 countries. The poster has been finalised – click here for a pdf.

To enrich the exhibition experience of the upcoming international contemporary daguerreotypes Marc Kereun has asked that if exhibitors could provide images of the technology that they used to produce their Daguerreotypes and a portrait of themselves. The images will be displayed alongside each Daguerreotypists plates in the exhibit. They would also be used for the “exhibition brochure (catalogue)” which will reproduce;

-their daguerreotypes
-images of their equipment/laboratory
-portrait of the author
-CV as daguerreotypist/photograph

Daguerre stèle in the garden of Hotel de Malestroit

June 15th has been set as the cut off date for submissions to the international contemporary daguerreotypes exhibit in Bry sur Marne. For consideration to be included on the exhibition poster the deadline for that has been extended to May the 14th. So if you haven’t notified the Daguerre association with you entries send in the the form to the president Marc Kereun (marc.kereun@wanadoo.fr).
With the number of exhibitors nearing twenty it looks set to be a great event, more details about it coming soon.