From: Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.co.uk)
Date: 09/28/03-03:38:59 PM Z
> Greetings,
>
> > But it can be translated exquisitely into book pages given the proper
> > expertise (or maybe it's liberty?). I think of the Chuck Close dags in
> > Lyle Rexer's Antiquarian book... I found them more remarkable than
> > the
> > originals which I saw well lighted (as far as I, a non-expert, could
> > tell)
> > in the gallery show.
>
> The best lighting of dag's I've seen in exhibition was, I believe, The
> Met's
> "Waking Dream" back in the early '90's. They used a system of tiny fiber
> optic spot lights inside the cases exactly placed to give very good
> results....
>
> Best - JB
> www.jonathan-bailey.com
> Tenants Harbor, Maine
>
>
There were approaching 300 daguerreotypes in the French show, so I imagine
such careful individual lighting was ruled out on cost grounds.
In fact I had few difficulties in seeing most of them clearly. Of course
you do sometimes have to move around a little to get the best view, and I
occasionally had to hold up my black bag in an appropriate position. There
are some with very faint images, and at least one - important on historic
grounds - where I think there was no visible image whatsoever.
I was surprised by the clarity and intensity of some of the work on show,
and it was particularly interesting to me to view some early scenes with
good cloud detail and also some panoramic examples, including some made
with swing lens cameras.
I also get the impression that photography is still not taken too
seriously in French art circles. The Musee d'Orsay where the show was held
has a very extensive collection of photographs and no permanent display of
them, only a relatively small gallery used for a series of shows based on
the collection - when I visited it contained around 20 Atget prints, quite
a few plates from Camera Work and a few actual prints by Frenchmen from
around the turn of the century.
Peter Marshall
Photography Guide at About http://photography.about.com/
email: photography.guide@about.com
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