Brought to Light
Shorter days. less light – cold and gloom. The holidays are not always conducive to creativity. In fact I find it hard to fight off a sort of lethargy at this time of year. That is why I look for opportunities to motivate myself when I can and today I found two of them.
SF Museum of Modern Art is running a show right now called Brought to Light – Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900. This show examines the ways in which the invention of photography opened the eyes of science to phenomena that had prior been unknown. Of interest to me of course were the handful of daguerreotypes that were shown. Of particular note was an 1840 whole plate effort by Andreas Ettingshausen entitled Cross Section of a Clematis Stem, Whole. This was nicely displayed in a darkened case inset into the wall with very careful lighting. This is the first whole plate I have ever seen and it is in perfect condition. The detail was remarkable and the lighting made it nearly glow. It really gave me something to look forward to.
The other remarkable find for the day was Alan Bekhuis’ Artist and Artisan Journal. Alan has a lovely series of photographs of his exquisite casework and he discusses some of his case-making techniques. It gives me something to aspire to.
So in spite of the general winter gloom I marched outside and did another few hours work on the castle. It can be hard to remember my goal when I am working on some (rather dull) preparatory effort – but my finds today have succeeded in rekindling some mid-winter enthusiasm.
Daguerreotype Process | andy | December 20, 2008
artist, case-making, castle, Contemporary Daguerreotypist, daguerreotype, daguerreotype process, inspiration
