The Daguerreotype: Contemporary work by Jonathan Danforth

8/26/2004    10:36AM:

Here’s some sad news:  Agfa is quitting the film business.  I wonder how long my friends Fuji and Ilford will last.  Luckily, I’ve been teaching myself the finer points of making my own film and in-camera plates.  If, in fifty years, you see a toothless old geezer poking around an antique shop looking to buy replacement parts for the last-known working view camera in existence, you’ll know it’s me.

This week has been very difficult for me and I’m trying to cope with a great number of frustrations in my life.  Expect updates in a new section when I get back from my trip to Penland School next week.

-Jon

8/24/2004 12:07AM:

I’ve been working on other areas of the danforthsource web tonight. It’s been a long time since I used mySQL and I’m very rusty. Programming this tonight reminds me of something that I want to share with those of you reading these pages.

The editor of LensWork Magazine has a fascinating insight on (more…)

8/23/2004 12:04PM:

Today is my birthday, hooray for me and my 24 years! One more year and the insurance companies will stop assuming that I’m high risk!

I will be at the Penland School of Crafts all next week learning the art of Becquerrel-process Daguerreotypes from Jerry Spagnoli. I’ve been researching this special brand of photography for about a year and I’m very excited about learning it. Along with the process of wet-plate tintypes, Daguerreotypes should help me in a couple of the projects I’ve got in the works.

Because Amazon is a bit slow in getting my new credit card to me, I’m forced to wait on ordering the photo supplies I need to do more work. Since I’m heading to Penland on Sunday, I will probably stay out of the darkroom until the week following anyway. More to come…

-Jon

8/18/2004 1:18PM:

I’ve recently been distracted by long days at work so I haven’t updated the web site in a few days. I’m simultaneously teaching myself PHP and CSS so that I can bring this site into the twentyfirst century. The last time I wrote a website, was the essence of successful web design.

On Monday, my company sent me to Spring Island again. After finishing the job at 5:00, I decided that I’d take an hour or so and photograph more of that beautiful island. I hiked pretty deep into the forest and, afer being assaulted by mutant, coastal mosquitos, stumbled on a fantastic 100+ year old Palmetto tree that I photographed. Note to self: buy insect repellent.

It will probably be 3-4 weeks before there are new Spring Island shots on the site. I’m one of the old foagies that still uses emulsion instead of digital.

-Jon

8/13/2004    11:03PM:

I ran into my old friend Johnny at Ben & Jerry’s while celebrating my mom’s birthday.  What a blast!  Johnny told me that my old friend Walter is into photography; it’s a small world.

I’ve been working on the gallery today and I streamlined the menu at the top until I can finish the other parts of the site.  For the time being, there’s a simple gallery that features very few of my photographs.  I’m planning to add some more tonight.

-Jon