Making a Daguerreotype

"A good daguerreotype was as perfect a kind of photograph as was ever made." ~Edward Steichen

The most incredible thing happened today, we made daguerreotypes. The real things. We actually did it according to the 1839 instructions by Daguerre himself. If you're not a photographer at all, watching this process will make you one. I understand and know the chemistry behind it, but it still feels like magic when it happens.

Our professor, Mike, is the sole daguerreotypist in all of Canada. So he's an authority on this subject. He showed us Daguerre's method for making a daguerreotype. I'll retell it here, because it really is magic. First, you need to take a copper plate that is coated in silver. It's really made by taking silver and copper metals and rolling them together several times until you get a bonded, thin plate.

The plate (silver side up of course) is polished with pumice powder and olive oil. Pressure is applied using a rag to polish the surface. After doing that a few times, the plate is rinsed with a spray of 0.5% of nitric acid and then wiped off. Then it's done again until the surface is extremely shiny. This gets out any chemical impurities. When it's ready, the plate is buffed with a velvet pad and then checked for dust. Sadly, this process takes about 20 minutes and usually induces sweating.

Next, the plate is put silver side down, in a special box. Then it is exposed to iodine vapors. This is the halogen the sensitizes the plate. It turns the silver to Silver Iodide, which is the light sensitive substance. After about 30 seconds, the plate is checked to make sure it is a dark yellow. Then, it is taken in a darkroom with the safelights on, exposed for 10 more seconds and then put in the film holder.

The exposure was 20 minutes at about f16 of the street. It was a landscape and while that was taking we heated up the mercury vapor to 158 degrees to get the right saturation of mercury. Mercury is what will act as a developer for the plate.

When the twenty minutes is up, the cover is returned on the film holder and the case is taken into the darkroom where it the plate is removed and put in the mercury bath. The plate will sit in the mercury bath for another 20 minutes until fully developed.

After developing the plate is put in a tray and sodium thiosulphate (or thiosulfate, depending the country you are in) is poured evenly over the plate. This is the fixer and only has to react with the plate for maybe a minute. Then the fixer is poured out and several rinses of distilled water are poured over the plate and agitated.

After the plate is rinsed, it is gripped with pliers and held over an alcohol lamp. The lamp is moved back and forth along the back of the plate, drying off the remaining water.

And like magic, over and hour later, you have a 1839 daguerreotype. It really was magic. What was even more incredible about today is that I got to touch polished, unused daguerreotype plates that belong to Southworth and Hawes. I was practically shaking it was so unbelievable. Those two owned an upscale studio in Boston during the height of the daguerreotype. They are considered masters of the craft and if you ever see a Southworth and Hawes, you will understand. Making a daguerreotype is hard.

The process we learned today was just the first official version of the daguerreotype. Within the next 10-14 years, during the golden years of the daguerreotype, the process was changed and complicated. New halogens were added, galvanizing, guilding, toning, coloring and other changes were implemented to improve the tonal quality and shorten exposure time. It's mind boggling how many different variations there are to the daguerreotype.

Yet, no matter how it is made, the daguerreotype is incredible. It was like watching the 19th century come alive in that studio. Both chemistry and a magic trick. I can only imagine what 1839 must have been like when people saw a daguerreotype for the first time. I love our past, it makes me proud. There's something inspiring in the things we invent, triumph over, create or the way things change life forever.

Part of knowing where we're going is knowing where we came from. And to think, I'm going to have a part of preserving that past for our future. It's a pretty powerful feeling.