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.

The 4th annual F295 Symposium “Further Explorations on the Idea of a 21st Century Photography” takes place June 2-5, 2011 in Pittsburgh PA, USA and features photographers/artists talking about their work and the ideas, rationale, and thoughts behind it. It also features historic process workshops by leaders in the field.

F295 is keen to build the presence of contemporary daguerreotypists at this event and future ones. A component of the event of particular interest is the Thursday evening opening reception which features an informal portfolio sharing event. There will be a large ballroom and attendees will be able to lay out work samples to share and discuss with the speakers and other attendees.

F295 is offering registered members of cdags forum the opportunity to register at the F295 member rate. In registering, dagforum members can declare their affiliation by stating their full name, dagforum name and email address and will receive the F295 member rate. This is for a limited time so do be in quick.

Artist Curtis Wehrfritz joins the ranks of cdags galleried artists with his own gallery page. Curtis learned the process from Mike Robinson and makes daguerreotypes from digital files as well images directly from nature. Shooting 8 x 10 film performance pieces he uses them to make daguerreotypes that are editions produced one at a time when sold.

Takashai Arai took on a unusual new years resolution this year, which has seen him make one exposure per day on 6 x 6cm plates. With the recent tragedies in Japan he has now taken on a additional project towards charity to raise funds for the victims of the Touhoku district. He is offering portrait sittings with the proceeds (excluding the cost of materials) being sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society. For more info contact info@TakashiArai.com.

Denis is a commercial photographer based in Colorado, who was inspired to pursue the process after attending a daguerreotype workshop Jerry Spagnoli a couple of years ago. He now has an artist gallery page for his becquerel daguerreotypes.

Five new images have been added to Casey’s gallery including a three plate panorama and a diptych

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 private collector has sent in 6 images of some of his collection of 15 contemporary daguerreotypes. All of the instant family heirlooms are by Mike Robinson and taken of the past 10 years. The images have been added to the collector’s gallery.