Our newest gallery belongs to daguerreotypist Robert Shlaer. Robert started experimenting with the process in 1973 and in 1987 he ended his career in theoretical biology to become a full time daguerreotypist. His images range from portraits and landscapes to solar eclipses and the moon. Robert also recreated Carvalho’s lost daguerreotypes from Frémont’s fifth expedition.

Another self taught daguerreotypist with a new gallery is a professor at the University of Barcelona teaching about historical photographic processes. Mercury developed but until now only sensitised with iodine, Alfonso has been taking on Daguerre’s original process. Keen to take on portraiture he is now experimenting with the addition of bromine to the process. Alfonso is also exhibiting at Bry later in the year.

Daguerreotypes from Russia join our galleries, an artist called Bailun who started gathering equipment and materials in 2002, produced his first images in 2004. He has found it very difficult to gain some of the chemicals in Russia but his persistence paid off. Bailun will be one of the exhibitors at this years exhibit in Bry sur Marne.

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When a whole family is involved with collecting daguerreotypes its not surprising that one member should take on the art first hand. Such is the case with Casey Waters who has recently taken on the process and the mercurial one at that. His gallery includes a portrait of his father with a appropriate vintage look to it.

Another veteran daguerreotypist reviewing his oeuvre has submitted images for his gallery. Walter has managed to unearth half a dozen plates from yesteryear as well as a more recent self portrait. Also submitted was a account of taking a 1973 portrait of the famous photo historians Floyd and Marion Rinhart, the pdf of that is now in our “general writing” section of the resources section.

Shedding light on some of Ken’s earlier work with the process are images ranging from the 1970’s to the 1990’s which join his more recent work in his gallery.

Those that attended last years Daguerreian society symposium may have got the chance to look in detail at Marinus Ortelee’s version of the Daguerreotype process, the Orleotype or ante-daguerreotypes as he also calls it.

Similar to Daguerre’s initial version of the process the images are printed out rather than being a mercury developed latent image. Another additional feature to the standard approach to the process is the use of a third halogen, chlorine, which Marinus has mastered to give the warm brown tones. Otherwise aspects of the process are the same – the silver plate (which he electroplates himself) being highly polished (flawless in his case) is exposed to Iodine and bromine. They are in camera originals with a long exposure time (e.g. full sunlight at F2.8 for 20 minutes). He presents them in frames with his own hand painted passe partout.


  

Two new images from Rob McElroy are posted in his gallery, a recent 4×5″ nude and a still life which was essentially a test to see how the camera and lens would perform when looking directly into the sun.
In sending them in Rob remarked about the rise in the interest in the daguerreotype process that seems to be happening and credited cdags.org with spurring it on – we hope so, many thanks Rob.

At a time when President Obama is extending a hand of friendship to Latin America, Cdags.org has its first artist gallery from that part of the world. Carlos Dario Albornoz is based in Argentina and is a prolific producer of Daguerreotypes. In his own words;

“Working in this art it has made me know a wide range of ways for capturing an image and then making the final copy… I believe that the technique is liberating. The expressiveness can be found in the combination of the technique and the creativeness; that is why going deeper into the technique frees me and makes possible every take, knowing beforehand the possibilities that each material, each artifact, each process offers me.”