New to the technology galleries is a section to document workshops given by practitioners. First gallery added is Jerry Spagnoli’s recent offering through f295.

This gallery in our contemporary daguerreotypes section of the galleries page, showcases images from private collections. With this we hope to widen the scope of modern daguerreotypy to be seen on the site and give purveyors of the genre a opportunity to contribute. Ownership of the plates is anonymous in the gallery, only the artist is attributed. If you own modern daguerreotypes you can submit them to the colectors’ gallery by emailing images to admin@cdags.org

In the heyday of the 1970’s daguerreotype revival a gathering of contemporary daguerreotypists occurred on Staten Island, New York. Its aim was to share experiences of coming to terms with the process, to further the state of the art. A written account of the meeting provides insight into the trials of being a modern daguerroetypist and so we have added this to a new section – “General Writing” on the resources page.

Adding to the modern articles on the process in the resources section is an exposure guide for plates sensitized with iodine and bromine and developed with mercury. Submitted by Irving Pobboravsky, who notes that because every worker’s situation is different it should only be considered as a starting point, but it is just the sort of resource we seek to gather for the readers of this site, many thanks to Irv.
Link to pdf file : exposure guide
Additional notes from Irv:
EI = Exposure Index
EV = Exposure Value –( incident meter)
the table at the top is for an exposure index (ISO) of 0.05; the one at the bottom is for ISO 0.10.

Further distinguishing our modern articles resource is the seminal 1971 study of iodized plates by Irving Pobboravsky. When initially asked if we could add it to this site, Irv pointed out, with Herschel-like humility, that it was not a how-to-do-it manual but a scientific study, and it “would bore the hell out of most daguerreotypists”. He said also that “it would need to include a disclaimer saying that the author was not responsible if the reader fell asleep and somehow hit his head when falling to the floor.”

Far from causing such a response, it joins the other fine modern articles in the resources section that widen our angle of view on the genre.

Before the age of the internet (enabling communities like this one to bloom), hand-crafted publications featured in the photographica landscape. One of these, with its place in modern daguerreian history, was Walter Johnson’s New Daguerreian Journal (1971-75). “The publication of the journal was instrumental to my knowledge of the Daguerreotype process and the tools used,” reminisces Walter – and so it is for us today as we pool our knowledge here on this site. Still the wellspring of information, the NDJ backs the notion that since the daguerreian period there has always been someone, somewhere working away on the process. All the issues are now available as searchable pdfs in the resources section of this site.

Adding to Jerry Spagnoli’s gallery is a view of Obama’s inauguration. While the view of Obama is small, the image itself looms large, congratulations Jerry!

This site now has 20 artist galleries and a link list of Daguerreotypists that stands at 50. Of course there are bound to be more practitioners out there and we are always looking to find new ones or ones we have missed. We are hoping to have as many galleries of contemporary practitioners as possible. There is also a gaggle of currently listed artists that have expressed interest in having a gallery page on the site but have yet to send in their images. Carpe diem as there are some big and exciting changes coming to the site.

We are planning on shifting both current sites to a .org website address as we fully intergrate the Dagforum and the .info blog. On the surface you probably won’t notice this when it happens as the current website addresses will have automatic redirects to the new one, though there may be some cosmetic changes to the design.

This is the end product of the initial collaboration between the two separate sites to solidify our community website intent, hence the move to a .org website address. The intergration means that the blog and forum will run on the same software so users will only need one login to comment on posts in the blog or make posts in the Forum.

A new and exciting feature being incorporated into the change is the addition of a self contained Wiki into the site using the mediawiki software. Through the wiki we hope to build a comprehensive resource to the Daguerreotype process which will incorporate the material available on the resources page and one that practioners can add too in a systematic way.

The other big change already bearing fruits is that Andy Stockton of TheDaguerreotypist.com has agreed to join Jon Lewis and myself (Alan Bekhuis) in management of the site. We all share the same enthusiasm for building a online Daguerreian community.

Following on from the series of articles by John Hurlock, I have added some by another Vetern Daguerreotypist, Ken Nelson. “Mercury and the Daguerreotypist: A Modern Assessment” gives a comprehensive view of working with Mercury today.

Also you may have noticed the parade of flags of to the left on the page. I have noticed that the web traffic for this site comes from around the world so in an effort to facilitate this I have installed a translator. From using Google translate myself I know these can be a bit loose at times but its the best practical solution, short of having sister websites in other countries.