IN DAGUERREIAN ARTISTRY
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[Herman Melville, Moby Dick or The White Whale, (New York, 1855). Airmont Classics Edition (New York: Airmont Publishing Company, Inc., 1964), 422.]
One power radiated by the magic glass of daguerreian beauty might be called power of the presence. Presence within a daguerreotype is the focused potentiality of the whole life of the "human eye" captured within a plate. Different types of power of the presence exist. Power of the presence in an image of a young person is a function of INNOCENCE. A great daguerreotype somehow encapsulates all possible/potential futures for a youthful subject. Power of the presence radiates from this captured innocence of uncharted childhood. ALEXANDER HESLER (1823-1895) Alexander Hesler was born in Montreal, Canada but grew up in Vermont and Wisconsin, where his family arrived by lake steamer when he was ten. He learned how to make daguerreotypes in 1847.By 1849 or 1850 Hesler had opened a daguerreian gallery in Galena, Illinois. In 1851 he took a daguerreotype of Minnehaha Falls which was said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Hiawatha. In 1853 Hesler won first medal for daguerreotypes he exhibited at New York City's Crystal Palace. By 1854 or 1855 Hesler had opened a Chicago gallery. On 3 June 1860, he took three photographs of Abraham Lincoln. Of these portraits Lincoln declared, "That looks better and expresses me better than any I have ever seen; if it pleases the people I am satisfied."Burned out by the great fire of 1872, Hesler moved to Evanston, Illinois for five years before returning to Chicago. Other photographers rarely equaled the lifelike poses and expressions Hesler achieved. Hesler defined something of the amazing "presence" his daguerreotypes captured when he wrote: "Many, both in and out of the profession, wondered at the soft and delicate detail both in shadow and high light, and roundness of the portraits I exhibited." SIXTH-PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE Subject: Child in red-tinted dress by wicker chair. Artist: ALEXANDER HESLER. Galena, Illinois c1850 (Click on the image to view further details) HALF-PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE Subject: Child sitting in wicker chair. Artist: Image is unsigned.Possibly taken by ALEXANDER HESLER c1853 (Click on the image to view further details) THE POWER OF THE PRESENCE (continued) Beautiful daguerreotypes also capture childhood innocence fractured and darkened in adolescence. HALF-PLATE AND QUARTER-PLATE+ DAGUERREOTYPES Subject: Joshua Jones and his three sons: Joshua, Aubrey, and Frank. Artist: JOHN PLUMBE National Daguerreian Depot. New York City c1845 (Click on the image to view further details) (Click on the image to view further details) JOHN PLUMBE, JR. (1809-1857) After opening his first daguerreian gallery in Boston Massachusetts in 1840, Plumbe built up a nationwide chain of daguerreian galleries along the railroad network spreading across America in the 1840s: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Saratoga Springs, Albany, and New York City, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, DC; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri; Dubuque, Iowa; Newport, Rhode Island; Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Petersburg & Norfolk, Virginia; and Portland, Maine. Plumbe manufactured daguerreian supplies and cases from 1841 to 1847. He was awarded eight medals at various Institute Fairs in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. To promote his galleries, Plumbe published The National Plumbeotype Gallery made from portraits he had taken of famous Americans. He also published the first daguerreian journal The Plumbeian. As early as 1838, Plumbe, as a railroad surveyor, had envisioned the United States building a Transcontinental Railroad. In 1847-48, he sold off all daguerreian galleries to his operators and directed efforts toward realization of his dream railroad across the continent. After a long series of disappointments and ridicule for his visionary ideas, John Plumbe committed suicide on 30 May 1857. THE POWER OF THE PRESENCE (continued) Power of the presence in an image of an adult is a function not of innocence, but of EXPERIENCE. A great daguerreotype contains the subject's important past. Knowing a sitter's future also enhances power of the presence. We view past experience channeling the flow of future fate. JEREMIAH GURNEY (1812-1886) Gurney learned the daguerreian process in the spring of 1840. In the same year he opened a gallery on Broadway in New York City and continued in operation there until the 1860s. Gurney was one of the acknowledged "greats" of his day and entered many competitions including the American Institute and the Crystal Palace exhibits in London in 1851 and in New York City in 1853. In 1853 Gurney won the coveted Anthony Prize competition. His daguerreotypes are usually quite distinctive--often super sharp, and taken against a light-color background. EMMONS CLARK, Colonel and historian of the famous 7th New York Regiment, was born on 14 October 1827. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1847. Clark joined the 7th Regiment as a private in the same year. He rose rapidly in rank to Orderly Sergeant by April 1858 (approximately when Gurney took this photo). Clark became Second Lieutenant of the regiment in 1859, First Lieutenant in 1860, Captain in December 1860 and Colonel in command of the regiment during the Civil War after 21 June 1864. Clark retired from active duty in 1889 and wrote a two-volume history of his famous regiment in 1890. HALF PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE Subject: Orderly Sergeant Emmons Clark, 7th New York Regiment. Artist: JEREMIAH GURNEY. New York City c1858 (Click on the image to view further details) THE POWER OF THE PRESENCE (continued) Ultimate power of the presence flows when the indefinable human element of CHARACTER is caught in the frozen moment of "present" within a daguerreotype. Human beings brought character into daguerreian galleries every day, but photographers seldom stamped it timelessly in their portraits. Wringing the daguerreian process to consistently coax ephemeral character out into the plate was a mark of great artistry. ONE QUARTER AND THREE SIXTH PLATE DAGUERREOTYPES Subject: Virginia Gentlemen and a Lady Artist: JESSE HARRISON WHITEHURST. Probably Lynchburg or Richmond, Virginia c1850s (Click on the image to view further details) (Click on the image to view further details) (Click on the image to view further details) (Click on the image to view further details) JESSE HARRISON WHITEHURST (1820?-1875) Whitehurst, the premier Virginian daguerreian artist, opened his first gallery in Norfolk in 1843. He became one of the largest national operators with galleries in Norfolk, Petersburg, Lynchburg, Richmond, Baltimore, Washington, and New York City. Whitehurst made many technological improvements in the daguerreian process and won medals in National and International Fairs and Exhibitions. An entire generation of famous American daguerreotypists first trained in Whitehurst's galleries as operators. He taught many illustrious Virginians such as: Peter E. Gibbs, Julius Vannerson, George Minnis, T. W. Clark, Benjamin Harrison, and others.EACH of these distinctive portraits is a close-up focus on the sitter's face. Such a photographic style exploits perhaps the greatest asset of the daguerreotype medium--a super sharp resolution that records facial detail even down to individual hair (be certain to "click" on each of these images to view the full effect of this style of portrait). All four images came from the vicinity of Lynchburg, Virginia and are perhaps a small portion of one specific Whitehurst artist's body of work. Close-up head and shoulder portraits are but one of several distinct styles of Whitehurst portraits found.
HALF-PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE Subject: Child sitting in wicker chair. Artist: Image is unsigned.Possibly taken by ALEXANDER HESLER c1853 (Click on the image to view further details)
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