Cactus Cats of Balboa Park, Daguerreotype Dozen

 So much that a camera can do has yet been un-attempted, so many seemingly ubiquitous subjects have been limited to formulaic portrayal.  My passion for photography, and life-ling dedication to this most perfect of art forms, implores me to constantly reinvent myself, and, whenever possible, the medium I love so much.   In this project, I once again turned to documentary side of photography, the purest incarnation of this multi-faceted discipline. What could I do to make interesting images, while challenging myself and pushing the boundaries of how cameras have been used before. 

  Prior to this project, animals in their natural environment have never been the focus of daguerreotype images.  Pets and livestock have been subject of rare and sought-after plates from 1840-50s, and a few landscapes by skilled daguerreotypists of that time happen to catch a wandering cow or two, but no serious effort seems to have been made toward focusing on creatures in uncontrolled settings.  This really isn’t that big of a surprise.  With its low sensitivity to light, leading to long exposures, daguerreotypes require rather long exposures.  Add to that having to work with a bulky camera on a tripod, which has very shallow depth of focus from which the subject can’t move much.  On top of that, daguerreotypists usually tended to closely follow market demands, and portraiture was by far the easiest kind of images to get paid for.  Finally, preparation of plates is a tedious task, and if you’re not in any kind of control of your subject, a lot of trial and error comes into play rather quickly.   These challenges served as pure enticement to me when I learned of a colony of feral cats at our local park.  

  I was never truly a cat person, always related more to openness and sincerity of dogs, but I respect all animals, and enjoy getting in touch with their energy.  As most people are probably aware of, cats are among the least cooperative of all subjects, so I knew this was going to take a lot of patience and dedication.   Starting in early October, on nearly daily basis, I paid visits to this liberated feline hangout, armed with one or two plates ready for exposure.  The goal was to catch these creatures in candid moments amid their favorite backgrounds.  They spend midday deep in the bushes, hiding from relentless San Diego sun, and prefer to emerge only an hour or two before sunset.  These kitties also don’t like to hang out in open spaces much, preferring deep shade of some low cactus or palm, which made exposure times range wildly, from 7 to 60 seconds, with most being 15-20sec.  More often than not some noise from a nearby freeway or appearance of a fellow troop member made my subjects move mid-exposure, but I never let that discourage me from trying again and again.  Some individuals were just impossibly jittery, even when they sat or lounged their heads would be turning every two seconds, scanning surroundings for danger.  Others were relatively comfortable with my presence, and all I had to do was not move too fast and hope that no sudden noises would scare them.  Basically, seeing each successful plate coming out of my developing chamber felt like a miracle every time.  

  I can honestly say that this was the most difficult photographic project I’ve completed so far.  Sure, there have been much more complex works that took me many more attempts than I could have ever expected, but in those instances I was usually shooting for something so well defined in my imagination that I could not deviate from that goal.  This time though, no preconceived notions of specific compositions existed in my imagination, the only aim was beauty and uniqueness.   I was working in a strictly documentary style with a live subject, which I had zero control over, and so my patience and intuition had to be pushed to their limits.   Due to relatively high level of difficulty of this project, I gave myself a bit more leeway in terms of possible acceptance of plates with more slight imperfections that I normally would allow myself to have.   There was no way though I could bring myself to erase them, I mean look at that cuteness!   Also, please do keep in mind, as always, that daguerreotypes are different from every other medium you have ever seen.  There’s no way to really translate how each unique plate truly look in real life; thus images below are to be taken as a guide to their appearance. When examined live all these plates look considerably better than what I was able to achieve in copying them for this post, but only those who purchase each plate, and their guests of honor, will have a pleasure of experiencing these plate live.  

Anton

P.S.  These 12 original plates are now available for purchase on first come basis.  Prices range from $1200 to $2500 depending on which plate it is, so please do feel free to email with inquiries.

Pandemic Summer, Silver Image Medley in Daguerreotype & Collodion

  In this third and final catch-up post, I will briefly explore various inspirations of this summer and images resulting from them.  Perhaps the reader can gain a bit of insight to what makes me tick, and what makes me aim my camera in directions I choose. 
  While subject matter varies broadly, all images are united by my unwavering conviction that beauty will save the world, and that in production of these works I not only find myself, but also bring a spark of joy to those who will see them and, in case of personal encounter, feel their weight in hand. 

  DANDELION  
  While on the patio of a local coffee shop, on a beautiful summer day, I was daydreaming about open sun-soaked meadows, flanked by shady mixed forests, taller blades of glass gently swaying in warm breeze.  It’s been a while since I laid in such a meadow.  Such meadows allow one to clear a lot from the mind, allow one to simply be and feel Earth’s breath.
  On the way back, right by the car, I noticed a small dandelion sprouting out from a sidewalk crack.  It was ready to shed its tiny seeds, and I could feel the hope for them to be in that same meadow I was just picturing.  I carefully brought it to the studio, and made this daguerreotype in a manner in which I would have seen it against the sky while we were both there, in Nature.  
  Blue is part of the process, and other coloring was added by hand.
  After the shoot, I took it to the local canyon, and released the seeds.

 

Dandelion, 1/6th Plate Hand Tinted Daguerreotype (SOLD)

WALKABOUTS
  In Australian aboriginal societies, a walkabout it a rite of passage, a spiritual quest, undertaken in solitude, with aim of connecting with Nature, and finding your spirit within it.   For me photography has provided this experience. Walking out of my darkroom with a daguerreotype plate in-hand and camera slung over my shoulder, is my spiritual experience.  All preconceived notions are shed, and I let the direction of my search be guided by the great flow of energy, which comprises all matter including myself.  It’s hard to explain, it’s as if light itself makes me turn down this street or the other.  Eventually I see something that asks to be upon my plate, and this is how the plates below came about.  It can be light striking bark of a tree, or a scene within geometry of which I glimpse my own ghost.  Plates made in this manner are most precious to me, as they best sing praise to what I regard as photography’s highest honor; its inherently perfect potential of distilling visual experience of life into permanent impressions. 

San Diego Naval Hospital, 4x5in Daguerreotype (SOLD)

Ghost of Self, 4x5in Daguerreotype (SOLD)

'65 Mustang, 4x5in Daguerreotype

No More Turning Away, 4x5in Daguerreotype

Tree in Sun, 4x5in Daguerreotype (SOLD)

WATER TOWER
  Not far from my darkroom is San Diego North Park water tower, a local iconic landmark.  When about 5 years ago, I for the first time felt confident enough to take a daguerreotype plate outdoors, it was this tower that drew me in. I still have that plate.  Later I made a small distant view, and traded that one with a daguerreotype artist from Germany for one of his plates featuring a water tower in his hometown. 
  On one of the above-mentioned walkabouts, I was once again drawn to this looming structure, but this time the tower demanded to be pictured differently.  Standing in front of it, I saw the layers of history over which the tower reined, and to tides of which it will eventually succumb, a host to its own ghosts.  It took a concerted effort to make this plate come about.  Day after day, I kept going back, chasing this delineated transparency within complexity of a triple exposure.  Vision is paramount in art.  Once conjured, it can’t be compromised. 

North Park Water Tower, 4x5in Daguerreotype (SOLD)

GERBERA
  Perfection can often be found within simplicity, one just has to be observant and trust their intuition.
  While passing a local flower shop on the way for morning coffee, I saw a bundle of gerberas near a window, and their colors snuck a smile under my mask.  Upon getting closer, one flower in particular called my attention, and I thought how interesting it is that space seems to change depth and texture in moments like that. Depth perception is a product of our minds after all, so I wondered how I could capture that feeling of multidimensional effect. 
  Sometimes, when I want something very precise, I shoot some tintypes of a scene before going to daguerreotype.  Doing this is very much like making Polaroid tests for final exposure onto slide film, they have about the same ISO and nearly identical spectral response.  I did 8-9 test plates, moving lights and adjusting background, but nothing seemed just right, and it always seemed like my vision escaped me by just a little bit, with image, in order to be perfect, needing to have attributes of several plates combined.  I then stopped my testing, buffed and fumed a daguerreotype plate, and for this first attempt, seen below, moved lights mid-exposure based on what I saw them yield during various tests.  I was thrilled to see the plate come up just as I wanted.  
  As last step, I added color via hand tinting to bring life and depth to the image.  It’s nearly impossible to capture the look of this piece, but I believe this angle represents it as well as a still image can. 

Gerbera, 4x5in Hand Tinted Daguerreotype

BANYAN TREE
  I’ve been visiting this tree in Balboa Park for over twenty years.  It was as magnificent then as it stands now, and one day I got a hankering to immortalize it in daguerreotype form.  This pursuit ended up requiring a lot more effort than initially bargained for.  
  This tree is enormous, with crown circumference of well over 20m, has very dense leaves that are fully opaque, and has a boardwalk wrapping around with branches reaching down to just above head level.  This combination meant that almost no UV light is available by the trunk even midday, and I wanted to avoid splotchy sunlight, so had to wait until just prior to sunset.  Another problem was in representing something this overwhelmingly large and somehow making sense of it, while fitting most of it in frame.  This was one of the few times I knew nothing short of 65mm would suffice.  Luckily, a couple years ago I came into possession of an Orbitar camera, a dedicated wide-angle 4x5 by Burke and James, with a 65mm Schneider Super-Angulon.   That version of the lens being f8 at it’s most open didn’t make composing any easier, but after crouching between the roots a few times, and finally figuring out that my exposure at desired f16 should in fact be a whopping one hour, I did come away with image below, with which I was very happy. 

Banyan Tree, 4x5in Daguerreotype (SOLD)

CIRCLES AND LINES TRIPTYCH 
  Sometimes images appear from ideas, and those ideas are not exactly rooted in physical world. They call to be expressed through empirical experiments, guided by no more than a hunch or faint mirage, as of an owl seen through fog.  Where does the owl start and fog ends?  Tips of its wings, brushed against the circle of the moon.  How do they interact?

Cicles and Lines, 4x5in Daguerreotypes

  
APARTMENT HOUSE 
  Modern architecture rarely inspires me.  Sterile and lifeless in its core, yet trying so hard to be different, with its brash colors, angles, and finish, it makes me wish I could do something about it.
  A new condominium building went up right in the middle of what used to be a street with a solid pre-WWII feel.  It is finished in shiny metal of fire engine red color, and stands there like a fractured clowns nose.  It looks so comically out of place that it often reminds me of going to Moscow circus, and so on this plate I decided to treat it a similarly chaotically colorful manner. 

There Must Have Been a Door, 4x5in Daguerreotype

WAY THINGS WERE
  Just after the end of strict phase of quarantine (which I will mention was nowhere near as strict as it should have been), I took the larger of my dark boxes, and headed out to a local canyon park, and with Jozlynn, my favorite model.  
  Purity calmed by simplicity is effervescent and engaging, and in these plates we worked to portray this primordial spirit. 
  A small technical note of sorrow is in order.  After making one of the below plates I learned that the purple glass it is made on is no longer produced.  The last company that made colored glass for ambrotypes moved production a few years ago, and since then has discontinued some colors in smooth finish.  This beautifully deep purple color is exceptionally close to 1850s, so it was sad to learn of its demise.  I still have a little bit left, so I’ll treat it with special care for pieces like this.  The image can be lit from back to reveal its negative form, when backed with any surface and lit from front, it will yield a perfectly black and white look, but if light is balanced to come from both front and back (maybe 80/20 split), the piece will appear split-toned. A true delight to view and behold. 

Respite, 8x10in Tintype

Ghost of Old Normal, 8x10in Black Glass Ambrotype

Quest, 8x10in Purple Glass Ambrotype (negative view)

Quest, 8x10in Purple Glass Ambrotype (positive view)

Quest, 8x10in Purple Glass Ambrotype (split tone view)

1850 Purple Glass Ambrotype Example, backlit

FIGHTER
  Another quick collaboration resulted in this 8x10 studio tintype.   Jozlynn works in the medical field, and we wanted to pay tribute to those who risk their lives and serve society during a pandemic. I didn’t want to make prop covid molecules like I’ve seen many resort to, and I think these thistles are perfect; they are both reminiscent of the shape we have been shown by scientists, and they also stick to you if you aren’t careful, just like the virus does.  This image was made in-camera with 4 exposures and I couldn’t be happier with the way it carries initial concept. 

Fighter, 8x10in Tintype

  A debt of gratitude is owed to individuals around the globe who have purchased plates marked as sold.  I truly appreciate it, and wouldn’t be able to continue making work if it wasn’t for that support.
  Should You wish to add any of above daguerreotypes or wet plate collodion works to Your art collection, please do feel free to send a message. 
Anton