The Daguerreotype: Contemporary work by Jonathan Danforth

I wouldn’t be very surprised if some of you weren’t willing to cough up the $14.95 to purchase a copy of Craft Magazine just to read about me. If you’re among those frugal few, I stumbled across an online edition of the Craft Magazine issue that contains an article about me and my daguerreotypes. The article can be found here.
Jonathan

I have been reading quite a lot about holograms lately. I intend to make a few holograms using a very straightforward method to see if it’s something I want to pursue with more gusto. Other than my near-primordial fascination with the prospect of playing with shiny beams of pure light, the holographic image interests me because it expands on the optical clarity of the daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes, as many of you know, have an ultra-fine resolution that can’t be rivaled by digital or film technology. Holograms are higher in resolution but offer another dimension due to a radically different recording method.

When finished, a holographic plate displays to the viewer an image that is the exact size of the subject. This aspect of holography is so real that highly accurate scientific measurements can be made from holographic images of objects. The limitation, my dear reader, is that the hologram cannot be enlarged - a property shared with my favorite 19th century cousin.

Often I tell collectors, gallery owners and media that one of my reasons for working with the daguerreotype is that I wanted to get the photograph “off the wall.” The daguerreotype invites close inspection and, like sculpture, it can be viewed from all angles, held, touched, and enjoyed on many sensory levels whereas a flat photograph cannot. That’s why the following quote from Laser Reflections (attributed to Ron and Bernadette Olson) is so poignant:

At a time when our visual senses are being assaulted on a grand scale by gigantic billboards and megavision screens – there is something both charming and ingratiating about an image that must be approached to be appreciated.

How true.

-Jonathan

I am frequently asked by fellow or budding Daguerreotypists about the minutiae of our craft. Too often, it seems, we are blinded by the allure of the medium to the complications of working with it. Ours is a rewarding and delightful art that can easily be created in a simple backyard workshop or even a bathroom. So I encourage you: fear not, friends! The Daguerreotypist is here to help you.

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is about plate preparation and polishing. I do not know of a one-stop-shop for silver plated copper plates so I am forced to make my own. Here I outline my process.

Polishing Copper (see here for definitions of cutting and polishing actions):

1. Mount plate to a block of wood using small nails
1. The wood block should have a smaller piece glued underneath it to act as a handle
2. Remove big scratches with stitched sisal wheel and black emery compound (cutting action)
3. Move to stitched muslin wheel with brown (tripoli) compound (first cutting, then polishing action)
4. Move to stitched muslin wheel with white compound (first cutting, then polishing action)
5. Move to buffing board or non-stitched muslin wheel with red compound until you have a mirror finish
6. Wrap your polished plates in soft paper towels for transport / shipping (I use Scott Shop towels made by the Engulf and Devour Kimberly Clark Corporation)

Silver Plating: Have your plater deposit at least a half mil (.0005″, about 12 microns) of silver on your plates. It isn’t unreasonable to ask your plater for an x-ray spot analysis of the silver thickness if the plater is so equipped. My plater, Surtronics in Raleigh, NC, performs an x-ray analysis for me on every plate.

Silver Polishing:

1. Very quickly, polish the plate on a stitched muslin wheel with red rouge on one direction
1. Rotate the plate 90 degrees and repeat
2. Rotate the plate 90 degrees and repeat
2. Very quickly, polish the plate on an non-stitched muslin wheel with red or blue compound (some people use ZAM here too)
3. Final polish on a buffing board made from MDF covered in leather or some other kind of shock absorber and then covered in synthetic velvet using dried and powdered red rouge.
1. Polish in the same direction as the lines that you laid down earlier on the wheels.

Resources:
Copper Plates: Online Metals (Custom-cut 16 Gauge Copper 110 sheet)
Buffs, buffers, compounds, and silver plating supplies if you’re so inclined: Caswell Plating
More exotic compounds and other goodies: Metalliferous and Rio Grande

As always, keep the questions coming.

-Jonathan