The future of the dag.

DAGUERREOTYPES PAST AND PRESENT

DAGUERREIAN SOCIETY GALLERY

PITTSBURGH

APRIL 21-MAY 5, 2007

In an unassuming building a few minutes drive from downtown Pittsburgh was an exhibition of unexpected depth and magnitude. As the title suggests, "Daguerreotypes Past and Present" displayed historic images alongside the work of two contemporary daguerreotypists, Toronto's Mike Robinson and Jerry Spagnoli from New York City. The show provided viewers with the rare opportunity to be immersed in what many believe is the long-forgotten art of the daguerreotype--though this exhibition confirmed quite the opposite. Robinson and Spagnoli successfully employ this nineteenth-century process in their contemporary artistic exploration of time.

"Daguerreotypes Past and Present," curated by the Daguerreian Society's outgoing president Mark Johnson, was displayed in a three-room gallery housed in a former residence serving as the society's headquarters. Developed in 1839 by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, the daguerreotype was the first recorded image produced with a camera obscura. The daguerreotype experienced a short-lived popularity--about two decades in the United States--before being superseded by other photographic processes. Today, only a few have mastered the nearly obsolete art of daguerreotypy. These artists face innumerable challenges, including the toxic and highly volatile vapors of mercury and bromine.

In the central room of the Daguerreian Society Gallery was Spagnoli's Untitled Botanical Study (2001), an impressive triptych of whole plate daguerreotypes that eloquently captures a delicate pattern of intertwining tree branches. Spagnoli's triptych hung framed on the wall above a display case that held a combination of smaller historic and contemporary daguerreotypes of outdoor scenes.

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The exhibition's greatest strength lay in the juxtaposition of the historic with the contemporary as daguerreotypes past and present confronted the viewer side by side. Most of the historic images were grouped thematically in display cases around the perimeter of the front room where the history and technical details of the medium were explained. Some cases displayed daguerreotypes that helped illustrate the technical aspects of the work, such as plate sizes and hand tinting. Other cases presented groupings of similar subject matter, for example, images of children and postmortems. The emotional potency of these unique images highlights their intended function to capture the memory of a fleeting moment.

Robinson's work plays with the contemporary viewer's knowledge of historic daguerreotypes. The subject matter echoes that of nineteenth-century portraiture, still-life, and landscape. Images were displayed without any sort of didactic information and thus the viewer's experience is similar to that of unidentified historic images. The images encourage interrogation, enticing viewers to peer carefully at the small shiny surfaces of his masterful daguerreotypes in an attempt to decipher the identity of his sitters, the nature of the objects in his still-lives, and the locations in his landscapes.

Occupational portraits of the nineteenth century, which used props to indicate a sitter's occupation, present vivid images of individuals unknown today. Robinson's daguerreotype of two kilt-clad bagpipers, an image from his contemporary occupational portrait series, effectively illustrates this play between historic and contemporary: the two bagpipers wear motocross T-shirts. True to the daguerreotype's crisp image these men seem tangible, but identity remains unclear. Both its style and presentation--the image is displayed in a case and mat made by Robinson--reminded me of the historic portraits in the front room. The metaphorical lens of Robinson's portrait made the presence of the individuals in the historic portraits more vivid.

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While Robinson's daguerreotypes were displayed like the historic images, Spagnoli's were framed and hung on the wall. Because of its fixed display, the shimmery silver surface inherent to the daguerreotype reflected my image back at me. This effect created a different type of intimacy with the daguerreotype; my presence with the daguerreotype became palpable. Looking at my reflection superimposed over the curving fingers of the hand in Spagnoli's Untitled Anatomical Study (2001), I was reminded of the long exposures necessary for the making of the daguerreotype. Spagnoli's images interrogate the medium of the daguerreotype rather than its history, and my presence in front of the image became a metaphor for that process of the medium.

Sadly, "Daguerreotypes Past and Present" is the last exhibition at the Daguerreian Society Gallery. While the society remains strong and vibrant, the gallery permanently closed on May 5. Fortunately, the strength of the work in the show indicates that the daguerreotype does not share the fate of the gallery. The future of the daguerreotype is wide open.

CINDY PERSINGER is a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Pittsburgh.