Definition of Daguerreotype
One of the earliest forms of photography, the daguerreotype introduced the world at large to the concept of recording slices of reality. It wasn't long before the daguerreotype was superseded by methods that didn't require the subject to sit, immobile, for hours--and could be touched without damaging the image--but these early efforts contributed immeasurably to the art of photography as we know it today.
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History
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The daguerreotype was developed by a French artist named Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), the proprietor of a gallery specializing in his own dioramic paintings (grand-scale, hyperrealistic works). Daguerre was constantly in search of ways to enrich the experience for his clients, even employing methods of simulating the passage of time within his gallery's artworks. His optician introduced him to an inventor named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who had been working on a way to use light to "allow nature to paint itself." Their practical partnership ended with Niépce's death in 1833, but in 1839 Daguerre had refined the process enough to present his new "daguerreotype" to society.
Features
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The daguerreotype method, because it's essentially developing an image on a mirror panel, produces a laterally reversed image. As such, to produce a correctly oriented image, the artist must take a daguerreotype of the original daguerreotype, losing clarity in the translation. Some artists devised a way to use a second mirror during development to eliminate this part of the process, but the second mirror is a liability; it's an additional variable, making the camera more susceptible to image blurring. As a result, most daguerreotypes were just left as-is, their image forever flipped left-right.
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Size
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Daguerreotype images come in six standard sizes, which vary slightly according to the original producer of the image: whole plate (approximately 6 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches), half plate (approximately 4 1/4 inches by 5 1/2 inches), quarter plate (approximately 3 1/4 inches by 4 1/4 inches), sixth plate (approximately 2 3/4 inches by 3 1/4 inches), ninth plate (approximately 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches) and the diminutive sixteenth plate (approximately 1 3/8 inches by 1 5/8 inches). The ninth-plate size is the most common. These sizes take the entire plate into account, including the part of the image obscured by the display mat, which covers the often-tarnished outer edges of the silver.
Warning
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The earliest forms of daguerreotype are dangerous to replicate, as the chemicals employed are quite toxic. The process is this: the photographer treats silver plates with iodine to make them light-sensitive, exposes the treated sheets to light inside a camera built for the process, and then uses warmed mercury vapor to develop the image on the plate. Though the camera is sealed when the mercury is released into the chamber (as sealed, at least, as the wooden casing is sealable), the box is of course opened at the end of the developing period. Mercury poisoning is reversible in many cases but debilitating; among other unpleasant side effects, it causes neurological disorders.
Fun Fact
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As one of the earliest forms of photorealistic art, daguerreotypes were extremely compelling to the public. After all, such clarity of image (unflattering, in many cases) was something entirely new to a culture used to posed, commissioned paintings. As such, the word "daguerreotype" ended up being popularly used as a synonym for "truth" for many years after the debut of the invention, inspiring such works as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "House of the Seven Gables," among others.
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