Untitled [bust portrait of a gentleman] 1852 - 1858

This portrait of a gentleman was made by Jeremiah Gurney, a prominent New York photographer. It’s a ‘daguerreotype’, an early photographic process that yields a highly detailed image on a silvered copper plate. The shimmering quality of the image comes from the light reflecting off the polished silver. The process was painstaking: the plate had to be meticulously cleaned, sensitized with chemicals, exposed in the camera, and then developed over heated mercury. This was all done by hand, making each daguerreotype a unique object. Daguerreotypes were luxury items, affordable only to the middle and upper classes. They democratized portraiture, making it accessible to a wider segment of society than traditional painted portraits. The amount of work involved in the production process, and the cost of materials, made the portrait a signifier of status. Understanding the material and making of this artwork allows us to consider its social context, challenging the traditional hierarchy between photography and craft.