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”

A documentary feature film coming out this year titled “Artists & Alchemists”, features the daguerreotypes of Adam Fuss, Mark Kessell, Irving Pobborovsky and Jerry Spagnoli

A recently posted video shows the portrait and technical perfection of Eric Mertens …

Back in the 1970’s Irving Pobboravsky took three daguerreotypes of his next door neighbour’s family. The plates are now treasured objects of the family so Irv was asked to scan them for the family website, they also now appear on his gallery page.

The first was of Marvin and Patricia Parker in honor of their 25th wedding anniversary. Patricia wore her wedding dress for the daguerreotype and it was made on July 9th, 1974.
The next daguerreotype was of Patricia’s parents made on May 2nd, 1976. George and Marion Gantert. The third daguerreotype is of Patricia and Marvin Parker’ sons, from left to right: Kevin, Martin, Michael and Stephen Parker, July 3, 1977.

A recent portrait by Eric Mertens sheds light on our oldest living practitioner, Ray Phillips, who learnt the finer points of the process from Charles Tremear, the patriarch of the twentieth-century daguerreotype in America. The latter operated a studio from 1929 till his death in 1943, in Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Tremear was a traveling tintypist until he found work with Ford Motor Company in 1909, and in 1929 was asked to create authentic “old-style” tintypes for visitors to Greenfield Village. Tremear made portraits of about 100,000 persons, including Thomas Edison, Joe Louis and Walt Disney. Beyond the tintypes, though, he taught himself the daguerreotype process using original equipment and manuals.

Ray Phillips had been working on the process since 1936 before he had a portrait sitting early one morning in 1941 with Charles Tremear. Ray was so inspired by the event that he went home and talked his dad into putting skylights into the garage to upgrade his facilities. Ray continued to make daguerreotypes over the next 15 years before moving his efforts and resources into phonographs.

This latest portrait sitting was facilitated by tintypist René Rondeau (a friend of Ray Phillips) and it was a day Eric will always remember, filled with daguerreian anecdotes and great conversation.

Images below show the portrait and the day at Eric’s studio.