Frequently Asked Questions

Do you use Mecury?
I do not use Mercury vapor... yet. I use a safer process called the Becquerel Method involving only Iodine vapor and sunlight.

Can you show me how to make Daguerreotypes?
Yes and I would love to.

Can you make a Daguerreotype for me?
Yes and I would love to.

Does the silver tarnish on a Daguerreotype?
Silver tarnishes when exposed with sulfur compounds in the air. Tarnish is just silver sulfide, a black substance. I avoid tarnishing as much as I can by doing a couple of things:

1. Gild. I pour Gold chloride/Sodium Thiosulfate solution on the daguerreotype plate and heat it with a blowtorch for a few minutes. This process covers the image with a thin film of gold for protection without coloring the image.
2. Seal. I seal the daguerreotype behind glass using JLAR tape. Superman couldn't get through this tape. The sealing process is two-fold. First, I seal half the image to the glass and then I heat the package in order to remove any trace of water. Second, I seal the second half of the image.

How do you pronounce Daguerreotype?
Dug Arrow Type

Why do you make Daguerreotypes?
Daguerreotypes are the perfect photographic medium. On pure silver, the camera and lens record the scene with all the detail that the molecular structure of the silver halide has to offer. Beyond detail, however, the daguerreotype enjoys a longevity that I believe can't be surpassed by negatives, prints, or digital files.

Longevity is very important to me because I want our way of life to be recorded in an accurate and accessible manner for our descendants. Because of this belief, I find it necessary to work in a medium that has longevity that can be measured in centuries and millennia. Do you believe that anyone will know what to do with a CD-ROM full of JPEG files in 10,000 years? Could you play an Edison wax cylinder if I brought one over to your house today?

In a manner not entirely dissimilar to the one used by the first photographers, I am trying to capture our lives the way we live them for the benefit of future generations. The objects of our everyday lives are quite important. While people are excited about the latest cell phone model, they don't seem to be excited about the longer term cellular phone phenomenon. Meriting less than a paragraph in history texts in 500 years, the cell phone culture is something that we should document. Now take this example and apply to music (iPod), printed media (E-Ink, SMS, e-mail), government, etc. and you'll have a basic insight into my head.

The Daguerreotype, while fragile, has a material sustainability that can last an exceedingly long time. While I intend to place future pieces in sealed oxygen-depleted chambers for long-term storage, the images can survive for hundreds of years without such treatment.