Re: Daguerreotypes

Marie,

    First, please go to my web page www.schrammstudio.com and look at my
contemporary daguerreotypes. I use the old traditional mercury process that
was used by Daguerre. Yes, there is a non-mercury process (Becquerrel).
Plates are fumed in iodine and developed in red light. Usually taking
several hours to develope. The sensitivity of the plates is very low and
exposure times in sunlight can be 20 minutes or more. This is also true for
an iodine plate developed in mercury.
In my opinion, the look of a Becquerrel plate is luike that of a mercury
plate. It has its own beauty but not like that of a mercury plate.
    I did a lot af alternative processes before daguerreotype. I learned
them all on my own but I realized tat this could not be done in the case of
the daguerreotype. You have to have a master daguerreotypist standing there
with you, looking over your shoulder. There are ocassionaly daguerreotype
workshops at the George Eastman House in Rochester. That's where I learned
the craft.
     One more word. The process is difficult, hard, expensive and very
dangerous. As a former experimental nuclear physicist I was able to cope
with this. You must be above all cautious, determined and willing to expend
a lot of time and money, but the process gives us beautiful
images.
      My experiences appear in an early issue of the Post Factory Journal.
You might want to read that.

     Good luck in your quest and if I can answer any questions and you can
put up with my poor spellin, grammer and typos, I will be happy to try to
answer them

Bob Schramm
Check out my web page at:

  http://www.SchrammStudio.com

>From: Marie Wohadlo <mwohadlo@press.uchicago.edu>
>Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>To: Jon Danforth <jdanforth@sc.rr.com>
>CC: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>Subject: Re: Daguerreotypes
>Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 13:13:27 -0500
>
>Great. I am serious about the dags. In my mind, there is NO rival to
>them. I want to get to the photo print library study room at the Art
>Institute of Chicago, (perhaps contact the Dag show's supporter(s))
>and look into exactly WHAT is so capativating. I suspect it is
>partly the lighting, their sheer age and potential for a little
>mental time travel, and their virtual lack of any resolution to
>speak of.
>
>I have NO idea where to find a dag workshop -- maybe I can begin
>looking soon.
>Do you know if there is a process without mercury, or if it is just
>very very carefully controlled.
>
>Sorry, if this is answered in the links you sent me -- haven't
>gotten to them yet, although I am aware of the Dag Society. I was a
>bit overwhelmed by their website. It's frustrating because the
>process(es) seem part folklore and part science, like try to track
>down, say, a 'true' history of quilting.
>
Received on Fri Aug 20 20:01:26 2004