Takashi Arai’s solo exhibition entitled “EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns” will be held from July 25 until September 20 at Photo Galley International, Tokyo. It includes these plates of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial/Atomic Bomb Dome. This works echoes Takashi’s Miharu plate taken in the radioactive zone of Fukushima, that won best in show at the the inaugural ImageObject event.
Takashi notes – “I walk through a blighted land. I hold up a small silver plate towards things that were burned—and, even today, are still being burned—by a hundred suns. My journey in search of the connection between heaven and earth continues.”

A video of a recent demonstration of the process by Mike Robinson at a Smithsonian institution.

Trending in the dagosphere now is portable darkrooms and not just the adapted interior of vehicles, but purpose built trailers. Casey Waters is the latest to take to the road and at the March Antique photo show in Washington D.C. he has been commissioned to make a whole plate of the event.

More new images join the artist galleries page, these plates from Daniel Kuczynski who now has a gallery page. Showing how knowledge is passed on with the genre Daniel writes;
“I have begun my journey in creating Contemporary Daguerreotypes with the kind assistance of Casey Waters and from a workshop at the Eastman House under the fine tutelage of Mike Robinson and Mark Osterman. It was an amazing week with all participants making some fine images, the energy and creativity was palpable”

Commemorating the September 11 dedication ceremony is a whole plate by Jerry Spagnoli which has been added to his gallery page. This adds not only to the body of his work of reportage daguerreotypy but also to his presidential daguerreotypy with two persons of the office visible in the image. Also added to his gallery is a view from Jerry’s Chelsea studio on that Tuesday 10 years ago.

Welcome to our first galleried artist from China, Li Junyi, aka newone2010 from the dagforum. Starting his gallery are 9 mercurial 4×5 inch plates of his muse. Li is very appreciative of the supply of plates stock from dagforum members that have pointed his silver plater in the right direction. Li has an upcoming article in the next daguerreian society newsletter telling of his journey of becoming a daguerreotypist.

Jerry Spagnoli has upsized his work with the addition of 11 x 14 inch format (10 3/8 x 13 7/8 to be exact) to his repertoire. He sent us these two scans of the accomplishment, including a portrait of fellow daguerreotypist Adam Fuss.

An opportunity for masterful mercurial instruction comes with Mike Robinson’s workshop at the Peter’s Valley Craft Center in New Jersey. The three day delve into the process will cover plate fabrication and preparation, safe management of the chemistry, particularly bromine and mercury, gold toning and equipment design and fabrication and is restricted to already knowledgeable Daguerreotypists. A rare insight into Mike’s workshop can be seen in a graduate student’s video for a MFA in Documentary Media program which is available on youtube.

As the seasons change it is coming round to that time of year again when opportunities abound for Daguerreian instruction in north America.

First up is Rob McElroy’s “Modern Daguerreian Methods: A daguerreotype workshop with Rob McElroy”.
The workshop is at his studio/gallery in Buffalo, NY on May 26-28, 2011, where he will be sharing his “trouble-free method of producing a perfectly-polished daguerreotype plate without the need for tedious hand buffing”. Participants will learn and perform all the necessary steps themselves, finishing with their very own mercury-developed daguerreotype, archivally housed in a custom frame.

Rob’s large state-of-the-art darkroom/laboratory, along with his studio — equipped with electronic-flash units powerful enough to expose daguerreotype plates, will make for a convenient and exciting learning environment. Also there is a half-day trip to George Eastman House planned, where participants will get a private viewing of some of the world’s finest daguerreotypes along with the vintage equipment used to produce them. Rob is also seeking permission to use an unoccupied 1890s photographer’s studio nearby which still has its huge original curved-glass skylight windows.

Later in summer Jerry Spagnoli has two workshops, one in Pittsburgh and another in Sante Fe. In Pittsburgh the workshop will investigate the process introduced by M.E. Bequerrel in 1840 and in Sante Fe the workshop will cover the alternative to “live” exposures: contact printing from a positive transparency. This method can produce an image indistinguishable from an in-camera plate—but with the greater control over the film positive, superior results can be achieved.

Info about upcoming events such as these can be seen on our events page.