I just added another “fairy wedding” photo from the Brady group. It’s fun to see how many different poses were taken, and how widely distributed they are. This latest one arrived from the UK. I’m going to put them all together here so they can be seen at the same time without flipping through my blog to find the others.
Here is another occupational tintype – this one is a bit unusual, not rare, just unusual, in that most of the unmounted tintypes you find are approximately CDV sized or 1/6 plate. This is roughly 1/4 plate size – a little larger than average. Interesting that if you look carefully, you can see that the photographer pre-focused on the set, so the beer bottles and the gate are in focus, but the two men are not completely sharp. This was sold to me as wine-makers as the subject – thanks to the magic of a good scanner, I was able to read the label on one bottle. It says Cabinet Export Beer, Keystone Brewing. I can’t make out the line that has the location. In doing my own simple web searching, most of the references I get are to Keystone Beer, the Coors subsidiary. If anyone out there knows a good reference to historic brewing in the US (or outside the US – I did see some mention of a Keystone Brewing in the UK). In any case, here’s a close-up of the label, in case anyone recognizes this. 
I think this is becoming another theme I’m collecting – this makes for the third image of a musician or group of musicians in my collection. It’s also, condition-wise, one of the most lovely tintypes I’ve found so far. As you can see, it came in this darling little paper slip-cover which has a fold-over cover to it made of the same pink paper as the backing. I love the overall quality of the image – you can certainly see quite distinctly the characteristics of a wet-plate image taken with a Petzval lens that would have been used at the time – the shallow depth of field and obvious field curvature (look how distorted the backdrop behind the subject is). I’d even be tempted to attribute the blur on the violin bow to the lens characteristics but knowing that this was at least a one second exposure, if not ten or fifteen, simple movement is a much more likely explanation. I’ve scanned the image both in and out of the paper sleeve to provide historical context for the image as well as display the entire image as made and seen by the photographer. 
Here’s another Mathew Brady CDV I got recently. Totally anonymous subject, and certainly not his best work. The reason I bought it was that it marks an example of his later work (post- Civil War), and because of the different back stamp – it still has both the New York and Washington DC studios listed, but there is no marking on the front of the card at all. Anyone out there who can give me a better ID on the time period for the card would be much appreciated. 
I love finding images that are interesting to me. The price is not an issue – if it interests me, I’ll buy it, whether the price is fifteen cents or $1500. Well, I’ve not spent THAT much on an image yet… This is an example of something that was definitely in the lower end of that price range – it’s in horrible condition, but in some ways that poor condition says a lot more to me than something pristinely original. Call it patina if you will – every tear, wrinkle, crease and crack tells a story about the image. This one meant a lot to someone, as it certainly looks like it got carried around in a pocket for decades. I’m guessing one of the three brothers in the photo.
That wear and tear, although it devalues the image from a monetary standpoint, adds so much history to the image. For the record, it was less than $4. The thing that fuels an interest in these anonymous images is the narrative potential – not only the who and the why of the image itself, but when you look at something that’s had a life like this, the what happened to the image as well. Where did it go, what events did it participate in? I’ve just been reading a book about the end of the Comanche empire in the 1870s. Eventually the Comanches were confined to reservations in Oklahoma, along with a number of other Plains tribes and the so-called five “Civilized Tribes” forcibly displaced from their original homes in the south and east. Given that this is a cabinet card, I’d place it closer to 1900 than 1870, but the chronological and geographic proximity is nonetheless intriguing. This and a couple other images I have will likely go to the National Museum of the Native American if they’re interested.
The titular mystery to solve is, as always, the identity of the subjects. If anyone out there wants to take a crack at it, I’d love all the help I can get. I’ve scanned the reverse of the card, and have posted it below. I can make out what appears to be “R. Bald Eagle” on the upper left, and lower down I’m seeing fragments that say “..hegen… who…in…bead”. Also if anyone knows good scanning technique to try and further extract the text (written in pencil) I’m all ears, as that technique would be very handy down the road.
Here are three of my latest collecting acquisitions. First, the daguerreotype. A very nice quarter-plate dag, extremely well exposed, and very subtly hand-tinted and gilded. If you look carefully you can see the hands are flesh-toned, and the face has a hint of it as well. The gentleman’s watch fob and the edges of the book pages are gilded. Both of these touches would have been “up-sells” at the time of the commissioning of the image. I haven’t popped this one out of its case yet because the glass is resting directly on the mat, and not bound by a brass frame as part of a package, and the glass is in so tight that I’d be afraid of cracking it or tearing the velvet surround trying to get it out. The scan does not do it justice, as the scanner’s lens can’t quite focus on the image plane.
Next up are a pair of rather fun images. They’re totally anonymous, both from a photographer’s and a subject’s point of view. The why of collecting them is rather simple – they’re interesting. And they were bargains. Bought off Ebay, they sold at the right (wrong from the sellers’ perspective) time of day and attracted no other bids, so I got them for a penny apiece. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to start collecting, and these are proof. The thing that grabbed my attention about both of these initially were the auction titles- “African-American/Native American man” and “Two Men doing a Tom Sawyer”. I’m deleting the seemingly obligatory “rare” from the titles because EVERYTHING on Ebay is “rare”, and if it doesn’t look like a dog chewed on it, it’s also “minty”. Minty describes a flavor or odor, not a condition. These are both obviously not “minty”, but that’s ok – what counts is the image itself. While a pristine image is a beautiful thing to find, I also enjoy finding photos that look like they’ve had a life, and were not just bought and stuck in an album on a hidden shelf.
On the “African-American/Native American man” photo, it is an albumen print, and there are some obvious mis-handling marks from the time of printing (see the silver splotch over his shoulder). I will grant the “rare” on this one as images like this are while perhaps not truly “rare” they are uncommon. I’m actually on the fence about who and what this young man might be. The straight hair suggests Native American, but some of the facial features like the nose and cheekbones could be African or even Asian features, and certainly very likely to be mixed race of some sort. Guessing from the attire (and PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) this was taken in the 1890s.
The last image has no other way to describe it but “FUN”. Two men white-washing a fence, posing with their paint cans and brushes. A real slice of Americana, I love the sense of humor about it as well as the pop-culture reference before there was such a concept as a pop-culture reference. I’m sure Tom Sawyer would have had a good laugh at this if he were real, to see it. It even looks like the depictions of Aunt Polly’s house from movies. This is on silver gelatin “gaslamp” paper, and mounted on embossed card stock. I’ve tweaked the scan a bit to improve the picture quality overall, so don’t entirely trust the color balance.
I found my first Alexander Gardner CDV! I’m very excited. It’s a really cool image of a large group of what could be a family, four couples, or just eight random friends. None are identified. I’ve been hunting for a Gardner CDV for a while now, as they don’t seem to be all that common, unlike the Brady CDVs which show up frequently. 
Another recent acquisition is a quarter-plate daguerreotype I found in an antiques mall outside Charlottesville, Virginia. This was a fortunate find – not only is the image larger in size than you normally see, but the image quality and preservation is overall quite good (the original seals are intact), and the case, though worn, is complete and still maintains the original hinge and clasps. The image is probably from a Charlottesville area estate, but no identifying information was provided with it. I did remove the packet from the case and discovered the names of the subjects scratched into the paper lining – I’ll have to grind a pencil lead on some sandpaper to make some carbon dust and try to get the characters filled in so I can read the inscription and identify the sitters. I’ll post a photo of it when I have figured out what it says.
Apologies for the color of the image – this was my first time scanning a daguerreotype, and the image itself came out more blue-green than it is in reality. I was concerned about over-correcting and turning the mats some garish shade of yellow that they’re not, so I left it alone this time. This was another intriguing composition – almost all the dags I’ve seen and bought before have some kind of background and/or props for the sitters. This looks like the couple is against a black backdrop, almost as if they’re floating in space. And the large dead space at the top of the frame is interesting too, from a compositional standpoint.
On November 23, 2011, David Prifti, a brilliant wet-plate photographer living, working and teaching in the Boston area, passed away after an extended battle with cancer. I am deeply saddened that such a bright light and creative force for positivity has gone out. I knew his work from APUG, Large Format Info, and the Collodion Forum, but never had the chance to meet him in person. I have seen his plates live though, hanging on gallery walls, and no web reproduction can do them justice. You can see his work online at the three previously mentioned websites (all linked from here). His work was part of the Masterplaters show that just closed November 22 at the Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville campus. Plans are in the works to bring the exhibit to the Washington DC area in the not-too-distant future – keep an eye on this blog for future information. There will be a memorial service on November 30th 4pm at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Concord, MA.
Upate 11/29/2011: Here is a link to a short writeup on the Huffington Post about David:
David Prifti, 1961-2011
There will be a scholarship fund established and named after him at the school where he taught. Information on donations is available in the linked article above.
I received great news today – with over a week to go before the wednesday night demo, I have 10 people registered. This is terrific. I’m really looking forward to the event, and I can’t wait to meet all the people interested in the process. There’s still room to sign up if anyone is interested, so please head over to the Photoworks website and sign up.
Well, I just got finished loading up film holders in preparation for the next few days’ shooting. I have one shoot scheduled for tomorrow evening after work, and another for Saturday evening. I may well be certifiably crazy for the amount of darkroom work this will have me doing – I’ve got 10 sheets of 14×17, 20 sheets of whole plate (6.5×8.5 inch), and 16 sheets of 5×12 loaded and ready to shoot. I may be even more insane for even considering the jumps between formats. I’ll risk it though because I have so many ideas – I want to try and shoot my three-panel “folding screen” idea on the 14×17 with at least one of my models, I’ve got some more ideas for the “human commodities” series, and I also have ideas for the body panoramas. I’ve got to remember to bring some of my costume pieces from my RenFest outfit tomorrow as well as the shopping bags for the Human Commodities bit. See what I mean about crazy? At least this is a GOOD crazy.
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