Lyle’s talk on contemporary photographic art has been uploaded as a series of videos, links to the first 4 of all 8 parts can be found on the IO symposium page – www.imageobject.com/symposium/

Two new plates have been added to Walter Johnson’s gallery, at 80 years old Walter is one of the oldest practising daguerreotypists, I like many, hope to being still making daguerreotypes then, keep up the good work Walter!

Takashi Arai’s has a solo show entitled “Exposed in a Hundred Suns” opening this Saturday, May 11th at Amagasaki Cultural Center in Hyogo prefecture, Japan.

Since 2010 Takashi has been working with Daigo Fukuryumaru Exhibition Hall to create new works include a multiple daguerreotypes of Lucky Dragon 5 and a portrait of Matashichi Oishi. Matashichi is a former fisherman of the wooden fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5, and he is a nuclear victim and a survivor from fatal irradiation from Bikini H-bomb test.
For the upcoming show, Takashi will exhibit the series of Lucky Dragon 5, portraits and landscapes from Fukushima, 100 plates from Daily Daguerreotype Project and one brand-new plate from Trinity Site in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Also Takashi’s public lecture will be given on May 11, at 13:30 in a lecture hall on 8th floor in Amagasaki Cultural Center.

Jerry Spagnoli recently spent time teaching workshops in Australia, Craig Tuffin sent us this account with images from his iphone of the proceedings:

“It was a very exciting time in the weeks leading up to Jerry Spagnoli’s visit to Australia. Jerry had been the very first person approached by Ellie Young from GoldStreet studios in Victoria to run two three-day workshops and act as the keynote speaker at Australia’s very first ‘Alternative Photographic Process Symposium’. Ellie has a very passionate group of people regularly attending her workshops and numerous other photographic events, but this was the first time daguerreotypy had been on offer. Photographers ranging from the purely amateur to the seasoned professional rushed to fill the limited places that were available. As a result, both of Jerry’s workshops were filled weeks before his arrival.

It was soon discovered that Jerry is not only a very humble and approachable guy, but also an entertaining speaker, all too willing to share his vast knowledge of this beautiful process. Personally, after many years of working with wet plate collodion, I was awestruck by what the daguerreotype had to offer. Not only could I travel away from my mobile darkroom with this process (not limited by a rapidly drying plate), but the daguerreotypes themselves were everything I had hoped for…perfect!

Jerry made sure everyone in the workshops received his personal attention. Each participant went home with many successful plates and a working knowledge of the Becquerel process. Eventually we allowed him to travel back to New York, but only after he agreed to return ‘Down Under’ in 2014. Phone-calls from people desperate to book places immediately started pouring in, filling next years workshops almost to capacity. I think we can safely say that Jerry’s visit was a huge success and CDags.org can look for a few extra Aussie faces amongst their membership in the coming months and years.”

A recent plate from Daniel Carrillo has been add to his artist gallery page, accompanying it is this video with his thoughts on the process.

Christopher Brenton West has 4 daguerreotypes on show at the Photo Art Fair in London which is on from May 2nd to the 6th.

Scenes from the ImageObject symposium. The day got off to a great start with a wider perspective given on contemporary photographic art practice by Lyle Rexer. It generated some lively discussion in the Q&A session afterwards, making it a perfect way to start the symposium. Jillian Offenbeck from the Archive of Modern Conflict (one of the event’s sponsors) gave us an interesting insight into the collecting of contemporary daguerreotypes by Amc, something close to the heart of the event. Takashi Arai gave us a fascinating and personal insight into his daily daguerreotype project and how it was influenced by the tsunami and the following reactor meltdown in Japan. I gave an account of my daguerreotypy of Maori culture in New Zealand, and spoke about my mobile darkroom facility. Breaking new ground for the ears of contemporary daguerreotypists in the room was Mike Robinson with his revelatory talk on the “Colours of the Daguerreotype”. The content of the talk is part of Mike’s ongoing research for his PhD dissertation entitled “The Techniques and Material Aesthetics of the Daguerreotype”. Once published it will be of great assistance to all those making daguerreotypes and we look very much forward to it.
Our aim with the IO event is to help expand the genre – to have more people making more daguerreotypes. We hope by holding this annual event we can further what cdags does online, and we are already looking forward to next year: IO-2.

Scenes from the opening night of ImageObject, exhibition space on the third floor , food and drinks on the 4th floor in the North Light Gallery.