Exhibiting Daguerreotypes

[CasedImage]

<div><cite>Andy_Stockton wrote:</cite>The fact that you can only fully appreciate a daguerreotype in person is simultaneously an asset and a handicap. </div>

<div><cite>jdanforth wrote:</cite>Every time I show in a gallery I spend a great deal of time working with the people running it to light the dags correctly. In less than ideal circumstances I’ve even had stacks of 8×10 black mat board available for people to use as reflectors. That worked great!</div>

Exhibiting Daguerreotypes does present a challenge, some exhibits like the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit of French Daguerreotypes 2003/4 and the Daguerreian Society Symposium exhibits have achieved excellence in this regard. One infamous example of how not to, was the International Center of Photography’s collaborative exhibit with the Eastman house "Daguerreotypomania!". The paper print minded folk at ICP displayed the Daguerreotypes in a white walled space flooded with fluorescent light and the Daguerreotypes (including the Sabatier-Blot portrait in the banner above) were almost impossible to view.Last year I had Daguerreotypes exhibited in a group show and the gallery came up with a simple solution that allowed intimate view of the plates (see attached image)

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[drdag]

That looks great, were you not worried that someone would walk off with one of your pictures? or dont they do that in the States? I have a show in week or so in London, and am still woking out how to do it securely. I had a disaster of a show in Plymouth (UK) last week with a tall cabinet and the wrong lighting.
I have purchased a wall cab, with halogen lights (It hast come yet) and I am hoping that will be the solution. I will be there at the private view for people to have a proper look, pick up and see properly. It is very hard to display these things well.

[CasedImage]

It was the McNamara Gallery in New Zealand and the Gallery owners office was just round the corner out of shot, but yes you would think it might be an issue, it just depends on the gallery space.

I have set up a new page in the galleries section – Displaying Daguerreotypes. The Daguerreian Society use to make and sell a display cabinet and you can see images of it; one at a symposium, one in situ at the "Photographers Place" the photo mecca of NYC for many years and one on the proprietor’s couch. Also some views from google sketch up file I started to have a cabinet made (sing out if you’d like the file).

Another method of display is to have each piece mounted on plinths but this requires controlled lighting. There is a view in the gallery also of some cases I made that were displayed in such a manner.

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[botticelli1972]

I recently had a single daguerreotype hung in a large group photography showing. I presented the dag in a wall mount frame with a longish wire on the reverse. The long wire allowed the frame to droop downward slightly to reflect the darker carpeting of the gallery. This was to prevent it from reflecting the white walls and ceiling. As far as theft goes, I also was worried about it as mine was the smallest piece in the show. At this gallery all works were insured and if it was taken I would have received the asking price minus the gallery commission.

At the Eastman House, they do the opposite for dags. They paint the ceiling black and put wedges under the dags to angle them up.

Lighting is an issue. The old dags were polished for window lighting i.e. final polishing lines horizontal. This is why sometimes they look quite poor (hazy) in museums that light them with overhead spots. Most modern dag practitioners seem to polish for overhead lighting i.e. final polishing lines vertical. This would appear to be the best option as most gallery and potential purchaser lighting is ceiling based spot lighting

[jdanforth]

botticelli1972 wrote:Most modern dag practitioners seem to polish for overhead lighting i.e. final polishing lines vertical. This would appear to be the best option as most gallery and potential purchaser lighting is ceiling based spot lighting

This is what I do.

[photolytic]

Many contemporary Daguerreotypists now use random orbital polishing.
This leaves a network of tiny multidirectional swirls which are almost invisible regardless of the orientation of the lighting.

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