Daguerreotypes - haunting images

Daguerreotypes are wonderful pictures from the 1800s. They were the forerunners to the camera as we know it today. For me, daugerrotypes have this eerie quality to them. I think this is because of the blank faces the individuals have in the images. Of course, it took a long time to take one picture, so it makes sense that their faces would have no character. Knowing this, they still seem a little scary to me.
I found one really cool one, its subtitle read : Posing for John W. Draper; Dorothy Catherine Draper sits for the first American daguerreotype photo of a woman at NYU in Manhattan, New York, USA, in 1839.

Its from this blog: "A Photo A Day Keeps The..." whatever - you know the rest. If you want to follow him, here is the site. Click here if you would like to see the particular blog about the image above.


This page tells you how to make an image look like a daguerreotype using photoshop. I tried it, it was fun and it came out really nicely. I found this funky web site that has all kinds of photographs, of all types. The page for daguerreotypes only has four images, but they are way cool.


A daguerreotype that had a landscape included were also very useful for naturalists, as well as people who lived far away. I guess it would help people living in, lets say California, see the niagra falls. It is something most people back then would never get to do, but would be able to see it through an image.
This one was taken in 1869:

This is from this blog. I think it is about a history student?



There are so many beautiful daguerreotypes out there, if you ever get the chance, you should look at some.

Bye for now,


Ziggy