Sarah's Dag. paper

Prior to my experience at project basho, I had several opportunities to both see and work with existing 19th century photos. I was always amazed at the quality and beauty of the images, but didn't give much thought to the process of creating them. My afternoon at project basho really opened my eyes to the patience and skill it must have taken to produce a good daguerreotype. Although I think all the students participating that afternoon left with a greater appreciation of the process, I think my prior work with old photos gave me a unique insight. It was exciting to be making the photograph, instead of just looking at them. I felt a real connection to the photos I had worked so closely with, and a greater understanding of the stress and uncertainty that came with creating a daguerreotype. It took quite a while to prepare the plate and expose my image, and the development had us working closely with dangerous chemicals and flame. After all this, my image didn't come out, which was the most important lesson of all. Although I had done all the steps right, my exposure time was off and my image was ruined. If anything gave me a greater appreciation of the old processes it was that.

From Photojojo

http://photojojo.com/content/guides/pinhole-camera-photography-day/
I always love the stuff I get from them, just some more to get you going for Pinhole Camera day!!!
-Gigi

World Pinhole day

So what about it?
http://www.pinholeday.org/

What is Pinhole Day?

Anyone, anywhere in the world, who makes a pinhole photograph on the last Sunday in April, can scan it and upload it to this website where it will become part of the annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day celebration's online gallery.

The last Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day was celebrated around the planet on April 27, 2008. Visit the gallery to view the pinhole photographs taken on that day from participants around the world!

The next pinhole day is

April 26, 2009

I'm repeating what poizon found... Who are you?

Anyway, Sunday April 26th... should we hold an event?

Pinhole Diversion

I found this website about how to make a matchbox pinhole camera that uses 35mm negatives.

http://alspix.blog.co.uk/2005/12/31/matchbox_pinhole~428481/

Looks pretty crazy.

Karen's Dag workshop response

For me the matter of polishing the plates really stood out. Our task was to polish the silver plated copper plates to a high shine. The plates were so delicate that we could only handle them by the edges with gloves on, and we used paper masks to avoid breathing on the surface. I probably polished the longest, I just couldn't get the hang of what I was supposed to do. It was very odd to be doing a critical task that I had no way of knowing how to do correctly, nor any way to judge the results. We were to remove any tarnish, easy, you can see that. But then we were to remove a certain milky colored cast on the plate, but I really couldn't see what this was. I was supposed to apply a certain amount of buffing pressure, not so much as to scratch the plate, but enough to remove the milkiness that I couldn't see. I felt that I was scratching more than polishing. In any case, I guess I managed ok, because although my Dag. was underexposed, it did come out.

During the very long day it took us to complete all the steps of the process, I kept thinking about how it would have been to run a commercial Dag. studio. Apparently you could have charged the equivalent of $100 - $500 per Dag. depending on the size of the plate. How many would you need to do in a day to be profitable? How many could you do in a day? Plates may have required up to 4 hours to polish properly. Who did this work? I suspect low wage workers, perhaps female relatives.

Dag. field trip

Have a look at these links and let me know if you want to spend time visiting either place (or both?) I would be happy to make the arrangements, so let me know your preferences.

Chester County Historical Society

The Library Company

I would ask for a private appointment where we would have either institution pull their most interesting Dags for us to look at.

Meg's response to workshop

At first, I thought that this process was going to be easy. Boy, was I wrong! I didn't realize how many steps were involved in the process. It amazes me even more that people use to do this process while traveling. They use to have photography wagons for this process. There are some crazy steps like polishing the silver plate for 40  minutes, putting on the toxic chemicals, then taking the actual photo, and then developing with mercury. After all of that, I realize that my Daguerreotype only showed one good brick. I guess I didn't polish it right. I will just stick to digital. It was just very educational. I don't think outside of our class can say they actually made a daguerreotype. 

Steph's Dag Response

Going to Basho was a very full filling experience (especially the filling part when Dana and I got Cheese steaks for lunch). Experiencing something like the daguerreotype process is something to really be appreciated. You normally don't appreciate older photography to its full extent until you go through a process like the daguerreotype. I was very nervous about the whole process, mostly the mercury vapors, but after seeing how its done I feel much better. Its definitely not as dangerous as when they first worked on it I bet! Most people don't even know about the process so its very interesting to see reactions when I tell someone about it. I am very happy that we were able to do this workshop, even though the polishing of the plates was very tiring, and that it was really cold.
Totally worth it and I want to do it again!!!!

Daguerreotype Workshop

The daguerreotype workshop at Project Basho, with guest artist Takashi Arai, was such a great experience for me. I think it made me appreciate the patience of photographers of the past and how much they developed the processes of photography to make it less time consuming and less toxic for us today.

The actual experience of making the daguerreotype was quite frustrating for me because I am such an impatient person. Polishing the silver for 20 minutes was probably the hardest thing for me to do and Takashi said that I probably didn't polish it well enough and that's why no image came out the first time I did it. It was very disappointing that nothing came out on my first try but I went back 2 days later to try again. Takashi had a plate there that he had already polished for me to use, which was awesome! It was not sunny at all and it was looking like rain so I sat still for 13 minutes to get a good exposure. It was so exciting when it came out!

Here's how it came out!!

Dana's Daguerreotype Response

We began the day shivering through a presentation about our instructor's search for historic daguerreotypes around Philadelphia. Though I was freezing, the presentation inspired me to want to go out and search these collections myself. The daguerreotype is beautiful and I wanted to see more of them. Even my underexposed little image was beautiful and special to me.

I will always remember the crazy contraptions that Takashi had built - the iodine box, the mercury box, and even the ventilation box built just for this process. Also, I will remember Takashi's patience and sense of humor throughout the long, sometimes frustrating process. Sitting still for so long was the hardest part!

In the end, though my image was less than perfect, my first (and perhaps only) daguerreotype is a special object that for me holds within it the magic of the process, the weight of its history, and the memory of this once in a lifetime experience.

My Response to the Daguerreotype Workshop

The daguerreotype workshop left me with an appreciation for photography, because I am accustomed to the quick and easy fix of digital photography. Not only that, but the process of preparing and developing a daguerreotype is more labor intensive than traditional 35mm/darkroom photography. I will now think twice when complaining about how long something takes, in regards to photogenic processes. I just wish we would continue to do daguerreotypes because the imagery is so beautiful and raw. It is almost like projecting our ideas into a fantasy world of the past.

Pinhole Photography Day!!

I was roaming around like always and I found this
http://www.pinholeday.org/
Figure I post it here for you guys to see.