The Daguerreotype: Contemporary work by Jonathan Danforth

The cool cats over at CRAFT Magazine have published an article all about yours truly. Peter Sheridan wrote a very nice article describing my reasons for making Daguerreotypes, philosophy about the art, and more. There are some pictures of some of my daguerreotypes in the article but sadly none of the in-process photos shot by my friend Frank.

The current issue of the magazine, issue No. 2, is on newsstands now. You can get a copy at Borders, B&N, etc. The price (as exhaustively reported by friends and family) is a princely $14.95 but the magazine is a quarterly affair with 160 pages of content and remarkably few advertisements.

The article about my work is on page 30 nestled snugly between the article on DIY pysanky by Paul Wirhun and Marina Bychkova’s bead-adorned porcelain dolls. Because I admire their art so much, I’m going to see if the above two artists would be interested in a collaborative project.

Please go out and buy a copy to support this cool new magazine. I’m very honored to have been included in such a cool publication.

-Jonathan

It has been announced that contemporary daguerreotypist Mike Robinson is on the list of speakers at the f295 Annual Symposium. F295 is an organization that focuses on “the art of lensless imaging and the craft of alternative photographic processes.” The symposium will be held in Pittsburgh, PA from 4/26/07 - 4/29/07.

This is, incidentally, the same event that I wrote about here but I now have a great deal more information to share.

If you’re an alternative process photography buff, you might be interested in the symposium’s cast of characters. The list of confirmed speakers so far includes:

• Alan Greene on Primitive Photography
  
• Barbara Ess on Reality, Representation and Lo-Fi Image-Making
  
• Craig Barber on Photography and Memory
  
• Jo Babcock on Contemporary Pinhole Photography and it’s Place in Photographic History
  
• Mike Robinson on The Daguerreotype: Past, Present & Perfect
  
• Patricia Katchur on The Renaissance in Alternative and Historic Photographic Processes
  
• Terry King on Retro-Invention: A Revolution in Gold and Blue

-Jonathan

Citing safety concerns, the mercury-process daguerreotype workshop has been canceled.  I, for one, am disappointed.

-Jonathan

Hot News Update: This course has been canceled for safety concerns.

Friend and fellow daguerreian wacko Jason G. Motamedi is offering a workshop on creating daguerreotypes using the traditional mercury method. The July workshop will be held at the Peters Valley Craft Center in the “northwest corner of New Jersey, where NY, NJ & PA meet.” I’m planning to attend this course.

July 13th - July 19th, 2007
In this workshop we will explore the origional method of daguerreotypy with the goal that every participant be able to produce several images HG daguerreotypes on their own. This workshop will use the Origional Mercury development process hense will be limited to EXPERIENCED students. We will concentrate on the most important and difficult skills; polishing, sensitizing, gilding, and problem solving.

Participants will be encouraged to bring their own 4×5 or 5×7 cameras, fuming boxes, etc.

For reasons unknown, the course is not mentioned on the website but rest assured, dear reader, that my daguerreian-searching fingers are always hard at work. Thanks to my friend Pam, I found a description of the course and some contact information here.

-Jonathan

Way up there in the header of the page are now two new links.

I receive a lot of e-mails asking about Daguerreotypes and I thought that I’d post some of the more frequently asked questions on a page all of their own.

I’ve also posted a Products page that will let you buy daguerreian wares directly from my site.

I love the e-mails so don’t stop sending them but check out the new pages for some good information.

-Jonathan