“Daguerreian Niche: Works by Contemporary Artists” Michael Robinson, Jerry Spagnoli,… “Daguerreian Niche: Works by Contemporary Artists” Michael Robinson, Jerry Spagnoli, Alyssa Salomon, more

The Daguerreian Society’s gallery

Wed., Fri., Sat.: noon – 5 p.m.; Thurs.: noon – 9 p.m.

Free admission

3034 West Liberty Ave.

Dormont, PA 15216

412-343-5525

In the 1850s, getting a picture taken was no simple task. Instead of dropping film off at the corner store and getting 24 doubles back in an hour, people who wanted a “likeness” of themselves paid a vast sum to sit still for up to two or three minutes without blinking. The photographers then had the even more complicated task of carefully developing these pictures, or daguerreotypes, with dangerous chemicals. The process of Daguerreian photography is becoming increasingly popular among photographers today.

The Daguerreian Society, a 900-member international group of enthusiasts with its world headquarters right here in Pittsburgh, and Silver Eye Center for Photography, have assembled the elite international practitioners of Daguerreian photography, and their works are currently being showcased in an exhibit titled “Daguerreian Niche: Works by Contemporary Artists.” The show is running at The Daguerreian Society’s new gallery in Dormont (3043 West Liberty Ave.) through Oct. 15. The exhibit features 17 artists, including Michael Robinson, Gregory Popovitch and Jerry Spagnoli.

At a gallery talk before the show’s opening on Saturday, Toronto daguerreotypist Michael Robinson gave a brief history of Daguerreian photography and explained the process invented by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre 1839.

Daguerreotypes start off as highly polished plates of silver, which are made sensitive to light with layers of iodine and bromine. The sensitized plate is then put in the camera, which absorbs light with a lens similar to today’s cameras. After the plate is exposed, it is taken to a dark room and placed over hot mercury, which brings out the picture on its surface. Finally, it is fixed and toned when various chemicals are poured over it. The result: a one-of-a-kind, black-and-white image, sometimes hand-tinted for color.

The more than 70 pieces in the exhibit explore a vast territory of creative expression. Christopher Lovenguth created a provocative five-picture narrative of a girl entitled “Quest” with highly blurred images. Eric Rickart, a daguerreotypist from Utah, took breathtaking Western landscapes.

The daguerreotype has a way of detailing an image that’s rare in modern photography. The direct connection between the photos and the objects they capture makes for a surreal beauty that current photography cannot encapsulate.

Since daguerreotypes are both exposed and developed on the silver plate, there is no negative. Therefore, the image captured will have no duplicate. This is what attracted Alyssa Salomon, a Virginian artist who enjoys still-life daguerreotypes.

“Each daguerreotype is a unique object, formed by a specific light at a specific moment,” she said.

But matchlessness isn’t all that intrigues modern-day artists. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of the gallery was to see photographers with strikingly different backgrounds find a common ground in this rare practice.

Robinson seemed to be fascinated by the history of the daguerreotype, and it shows in his works, which relate back to the types of photographs made in the Victorian era. Often creating likenesses of his family and re-enacting famous early daguerreotypes, such as surgery, Robinson displays true mastery over a craft in which perfection is difficult to achieve.

New York daguerreotypist Jerry Spagnoli, whose works consisted of dissonantly serene “views,” or scenic outdoor shots, of New York, differs from Robinson in that his work isn’t based around history.

“I’ve never been attracted to it because it’s old,” said Spagnoli. “I use it because it’s perfect.”

Still others, like Gregory Popovitch and Levon Register, find solace in a manual process in a field where everyone is going digital.

“In today’s world, with everything geared to the speed of electrons, computers and cable technology, one gets the feeling that life is only a fleeting speck of light,” said Register. “How does one slow down this fast paced world to absorb the beauty that abounds within this place? One answer might be in the way we record what we see or feel. For me, thanks to L.J.M. Daguerre, I have chosen to seize light.”