Poe Daguerreotype Sells at Sotheby’s for $150,000
At $10,859 per square inch, William A. Pratt is seriously commanding the moolah for his work. A 1849 quarter-plate copy daguerreotype of poet Edgar Allan Poe sold at Sotheby’s on 10-17-2006 for $150,000 against a $30-50,000 estimate.
Considering that this is the second image of Poe to appear at auction in over 100 years, I’m frankly surprised that this portrait didn’t claim a higher bounty.
Incidentally, I’m available to make copy daguerreotypes for museums and private collections. Perhaps I will start charging by the square inch. That seems to have worked for Sotheby’s.
-Jonathan
University of Central Florida to show Spagnoli, Close, Mann, et. al.
In a show called “Out of Darkness: The Contemporary Revival of Early Photography”, the curators of the UCF art gallery are displaying works by Chuck Close, Sally Mann, Jerry Spagnoli and Abelardo Morell and others. This should make for a really good show, check it out if you’re in the Orlando area.
The show attempts to examine “contemporary photographers who choose to have direct contact with the photographic process in its most basic forms.”
More information after the jump.
Jerry Spagnoli joins the 21st Century
Daguerreian pacesetter and artist Jerry Spagnoli has finally published a website, thereby joining the 21st century with his 19th century craft no doubt thanks to the recent release of his book.
For those who don’t know, Jerry Spagnoli is one of those responsibe for the modern resurrection of the Daguerreotype process. Jerry is the Batman of the Daguerreotype world. Though there probably hasn’t been a year since 1839 where somebody, somewhere, hasn’t made a Daguerreotype, Jerry really took a shine to the process and helped greatly in the resurgence of popularity. Jerry has experimented with what photography can do for a very long time from his art-meets-science photomicrographs to his radiant megacosmic images in the Pantheon series.
Welcome to the club, Jerry.
-Jonathan
Jason G. Motamedi on the Becquerel Daguerreotype Process
Jason Greenberg Motamedi is a fellow Daguerreotypist whose work I really enjoy. I have chatted several times with Jason about his craft and, not surprisingly, he does things a bit differently than I do. Daguerreotypists tend to share many things but our taxonomy as a group can be rather diverse at times. I spoke recently about how Mike Robinson, a daguerreotypist in Canada, uses a method of plate polishing that I had not previously heard of. Using olive oil, I bet his process smells a great deal better than mine.
I have been talking with silversmiths and people in other fields about how best to (more…)
Craft Magazine on Stands Today!
That’s right, folks! Issue 1 of Craft Magazine is available for sale now. Craft’s second issue will have an article about me in it so go out and buy the first issue so they make a second issue!
-Jonathan