The Daguerreotype Workshop
7 August to 10 August 2014 at the Fox Talbot Museum
Limited to 7 participants
£990 including VAT and materials fee.

This workshop is for artists with a serious interest in the evolution, aesthetics and process of daguerreotypy. The workshop will be conducted by Mike Robinson, a modern master of the medium. Participants will learn both modern and traditional techniques of polishing. Also covered will be advanced concepts of contrast control, alternative fuming techniques, and housing options. Each participant will have the opportunity to make at least three daguerreotypes during the workshop.

Roger Watson, Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum, will discuss the evolution of the daguerreotype and show examples of daguerreotypes and vintage housings from the archives of the Fox Talbot Museum and from his personal collection. Each participant will receive a facsimile reprint of original step-by-step instructions and other readings on the topic of daguerreotype.

Cancellation Policy: Withdrawal from the workshop two weeks before the session start date will receive a refund, minus a £50 processing fee. No refunds will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks before a workshop start date. If the workshop is cancelled due to insufficient enrolment, the entire class will be refunded the full tuition fee. The Fox Talbot Museum may take and use images, still or video, for educational and promotional purposes.

Location and Scheduling: Daily sessions begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. and are held in the Manger Barn (next door to the museum).

Lodging and transportion: Lodging and transportation are not included in the cost of the workshop. Participants must make their own arrangements.

For additional information and to register visit the website.

A recent becquerel process demonstration in Spain by the artists Simone Choulle of Taller de Daguerrotipo, using a reproduction Voigtlander cannon camera.

On January 7th Claudio Santambrogio will be giving a workshop on contemporary daguerreotypes. The event will take place at the National Library of Norway in Oslo that is hosting a commemoration of the 175th anniversary of photography. Details of the event can be found on the website (information is in Norwegian, but Claudio’s workshop will be in English). For event inquiries please contact Claudio.

Jerry Spagnoli recently spent time teaching workshops in Australia, Craig Tuffin sent us this account with images from his iphone of the proceedings:

“It was a very exciting time in the weeks leading up to Jerry Spagnoli’s visit to Australia. Jerry had been the very first person approached by Ellie Young from GoldStreet studios in Victoria to run two three-day workshops and act as the keynote speaker at Australia’s very first ‘Alternative Photographic Process Symposium’. Ellie has a very passionate group of people regularly attending her workshops and numerous other photographic events, but this was the first time daguerreotypy had been on offer. Photographers ranging from the purely amateur to the seasoned professional rushed to fill the limited places that were available. As a result, both of Jerry’s workshops were filled weeks before his arrival.

It was soon discovered that Jerry is not only a very humble and approachable guy, but also an entertaining speaker, all too willing to share his vast knowledge of this beautiful process. Personally, after many years of working with wet plate collodion, I was awestruck by what the daguerreotype had to offer. Not only could I travel away from my mobile darkroom with this process (not limited by a rapidly drying plate), but the daguerreotypes themselves were everything I had hoped for…perfect!

Jerry made sure everyone in the workshops received his personal attention. Each participant went home with many successful plates and a working knowledge of the Becquerel process. Eventually we allowed him to travel back to New York, but only after he agreed to return ‘Down Under’ in 2014. Phone-calls from people desperate to book places immediately started pouring in, filling next years workshops almost to capacity. I think we can safely say that Jerry’s visit was a huge success and CDags.org can look for a few extra Aussie faces amongst their membership in the coming months and years.”

This exciting, two day, hands-on workshop led by Jerry Spagnoli will introduce you to the daguerreotype – the first photographic process presented to the public in 1839. A daguerreotype is a photographic image, produced on a sheet of polished silver, unmatched for its detail and clarity, and for its unique presence. The daguerreotype is as much an object to hold in your hand as an image to look into. The process has a rich historical legacy but has been largely lost to artists for over one hundred years, leaving much unexplored potential for the modern practitioner to explore.

This workshop will investigate the process introduced by M.E. Bequerrel in the 1840′s. The ‘Bequerrel Process’ is simple in its parts, but supports subtle technique, and requires none of the extremely hazardous chemicals traditionally associated with making daguerreotypes developed with mercury. The plates can either be exposed in a large format camera, or contact printed from a film positive.

Participants will learn all the steps necessary to make a Bequerrel daguerreotype and will be given abundant time to make images in class. The skills you will acquire include polishing, sensitizing and finishing the plates, as well as instruction on making your own equipment so that you can continue the process in your own darkroom.

For more information and to register:

http://artintersection.com/event/daguerreotype-workshop-with-jerry-spagnoli/

To those in the NYC area this weekend and requiring instruction, our partner organisation for the ImageObject exhibit, the Center for Alternative Photography, is having a becquerel workshop by Jason Greenberg Motamedi

Kaden Kratzer, a workshop participant at a recent Eastman house offering, sent in this account and images of the experience.

“In February I had the opportunity to attend the The Daguerreotype: History and Technique; a workshop at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY. This mercurial daguerreotype Workshop was taught jointly by Mike Robinson and Mark Osterman. I had previously taken a Becquerel daguerreotype workshop, but I found the idea of demystifying the secrets of mercurial daguerreotype irresistible.

I am the sort of person you could classify as a serial photography workshop participant. Throughout the years I have attended workshops taught by many fine photographers at some great institutions.

The daguerreotype workshop at George Eastman House however was unlike any other workshop I have taken elsewhere and exceeded my expectations in a variety of ways.

Aside from two great teachers, we were able to inspect actual historic daguerreotype cameras and assorted processing equipment under the care of the Technology Curator Todd Gustavson. We also had access to amazingly beautiful daguerreotypes in the Eastman House collection, including my favorites by Southworth and Hawes. There was also a lecture on conservation and casing of daguerreotypes presented by Alice Carter from the conservation department.

The workshop was a four day event. Day one consisted of a comprehensive historic and technical perspective on the daguerreotype taught by Mark Osterman with assistance of visual projections and actual demonstrations.
This was followed by a group lunch at Mark and France Scully Osterman’s home with a personal tour of their skylight studio. The studio was fully equipped with vintage cameras and processing equipment. We also viewed the Ostermans wonderful collection of early photography and their own fine art photography. We all had a great time.

The afternoon was dedicated to a detailed demonstration of plate polishing by Mike Robinson and hands on preparation of plates for shooting the next day. At the end of the day Mike Robinson also successfully demonstrated the retouching of a daguerreotype for the very first time using a needle point and gelatin.

Day two and day three emphasized sensitizing, shooting, and processing our own plates. Mike also went over managing chemicals and resilvering plates. Mark and Mike worked tirelessly to provide wrap around support during the ongoing hands-on workshop while also answering the many questions we had.

Day three ended with a visit to the archive to see historically significant daguerreotype equipment under the direction of Todd Gustavson.

There I learned that I had in my home collection a book by Todd Gustavson (Camera – A History of Daguerreotype to Digital) and somehow failed to associate it with the Todd Gustavson in my presence. That definitely made for a funny moment.

The cameras displayed were incredible historic items. Included were the Giroux daguerreotype camera, a full-plate daguerreotype camera owned by S.A. Beamis, novel appareil Gaudin, the Chevalier half-plate camera, the Borquin camera (most bizarre item with two golden dragons on it) from the Cromer collection, the Plumbe daguerreotype camera, and so many more.

I was feeling pretty high after seeing this inspiring collection, but day three would prove great fun when the group was invited to visit Nicholas M. Graver’s home to see his own impressive collection of daguerreotypes. Suffice to say it was a real treat to be able to hold and examine daguerreotypes for hours on end. So many beautiful daguerreotypes including two Southworth and Hawes daguerreotypes from the Feigenbaum collection acquired at an auction.

On day four, a hands-on workshop on housing and sealing daguerreotypes was given by Alice Carter with Mark Osterman assisting and teaching cutting and glass cleaning, with the most accurate glass cutting I have ever seen. We were shown the easiest way of applying Filmoplast P90 tape to the glass edges while sealing the daguerreotype held in a Mylar “Z tray” housing.

I was scheduled to fly home that day before the end of the workshop and Mark Osterman was kind enough to schedule a last minute visit to the archive to see daguerreotypes. I fell in love with a Southworth and Hawes daguerreotype of an unidentified bride. It had a perfect softness and sharpness to it and her skin was perfectly beautiful.

For those fortunate enough to be able to stay the workshop also included that afternoon a visit to the George Eastman House library for daguerreotype publications.

All in all I can say that this workshop was a terrific experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning mercurial daguerreotypy.
The 2012 George Eastman House workshop series include 16 different historic process workshops. They are actually two more daguerreotype workshops on the schedule. In late June Mark Osterman and France Scully will teach a special 1839 workshop at Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock, England. This workshop includes the mercury developed daguerreotype as invented by Daguerre, Talbot’s photogenic drawing and Bayard’s direct positive process as they were done in the year 1839.

In October Mark will also teach a very unusual 35mm daguerreotype class. This is designed as a beginning workshop to both demystify the process and make it affordable for students and teachers of alternative photography.”
For more information about these and other amazing workshops go to this link:
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/events/series/photo-workshops

Rob McElroy’s next workshop offering is May 19-21, 2012 in Buffalo, NY. For more info see here and images of his last years workshop can be seen here.

Also Rob is offering on ebay a rare thing – modern daguerreian supplies – his daguerreotype polishing powder.

New dates have been announced for Mike Robinson‘s workshop at George Eastman House. This advanced course will take place February 21 through February 24, 2012 in Rochester, NY, USA.  For more details visit the GEH website.

Mike has also announced he will be returning to Lacock Abbey and Peters Valley for some 2012 events. Stay tuned for more information and dates to be posted on the events page.