The Daguerreotype: A Contemporary Approach by Jerry Spagnoli and Mike Robinson

Jerry Spagnoli, one of the best-known modern daguerreotypists, lives and works in New York City. He is currently working on a series of historical documentation projects. The preoccupation of these projects is how the personal experience of history and the "objective" document of it are enmeshed. Within this series is a continuing exploration of the daguerreotype and the collotype and their potential as contemporary photographic mediums. His most recent book, Regard, was published by Steidl. His other monographs include American Dreaming and Daguerreotypes published by Steidl, and Heirloom Harvest published in 2015 by Bloomsbury. His collaborations with Chuck Close have resulted in two monographs, A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, published by Aperture, and Daguerreotypes published by Gabrius. A collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld has produced a monograph and show entitled “The Glory of Water.” Dr. Mike Robinson, another accomplished contemporary daguerreotypist, is an artist-practitioner, teacher, conservator, and historian of the daguerreotype. In 2017, he earned his PhD in Photographic History with dissertation titled TheTechniques and Material Aesthetics of the Daguerreotype. He has researched and written on the studio practice of Southworth and Hawes for the Young America catalog and for the Society’s Daguerreian Annual. Robinson taught graduate and undergraduate courses in 19th-Century Photographic Processes at Ryerson University in Toronto, and has lectured and taught daguerreotype workshops in Toronto, Rochester, New York City, Lacock Abbey (UK), Bry-sur-Marne (France), and Kolomna (Russia). Both men have had their work purchased and exhibited at major museums around the world. Presented on July 18, 2020.