“I’m going to go to the mall and make some Daguerreotypes.” After my wife stopped laughing at me and caught her breath, she wished me well and off I went. The plan was to photograph their massive Christmas tree in a two-plate 4×10″ diptych. Unsurprisingly, one of the plates turned out horribly (the top of the tree) while the other turned out beautifully. A diptych with one image is a waste of everybody’s time so I wiped them both.
Upon leaving the mall, I chuckled at the scene in front of Nordstrom’s: an oceanic parking lot filled nearly to capacity on the eve of Christmas, 2006.
Dear Jonathan: I love this daguerreotype! It’s such a refreshing surprise to see a modern scene in an old process. The name of the department store backwards is fun. It came out quite nicely too. Now, may I ask – since I think you do both the Becquerel and Mercury processes – which one you used here? Thanks and Happy New Year! Sheila
Thanks for the compliments. I’m rather enjoying twisty everyone’s perceptions of daguerreotypie by photographing modern scenes and objects.
I don’t actually work with Mercury yet so this image was made using the Becquerel process. I’m hoping to learn the mercury method this year as one of my new year’s resolutions (the other is to make at least one 11×14″ or larger daguerreotype).
-J