The sitter in the portrait is a Captain Keesing, although he is virtually unrecognisable due to the bad condition of the photograph. It was in poor condition when acquired in 1983 but the museum recognises the importance of maintaining its collection of daguerreotypes as examples of the fashion and early photographic processes from the period. In addition it was one of a matching pair and the other, a portrait of Mrs. Keesing (P3340-2), is in far better condition.

This photograph is significant because it is one of the few surviving daguerreotypes which may have links to Australia. While millions of daguerreotypes were produced around the world and many thousands in Australia remarkably few have survived that can be linked to Australian society during the 1850s and 1860s. The first daguerreotype was taken in Australia in 1841 and its first professional photographer George Baron Goodman arrived in 1842. However very few photographs from the 1840s have survived and most extant examples were taken between 1850 and 1865 or are come from overseas.

In 1839, the first photographic process, the daguerreotype, was unveiled by the Frenchmen Louis Daguerre who had invented it with the assistance of Joseph Niépce. Daguerreotypes became an overnight sensation and were immensely popular even though they were expensive and could only produce one unique positive print.

Daguerre died in 1851 and in this same year a new photographic process on glass, the ambrotype was introduced. Ambrotypes were both cheaper, and could be viewed more easily than the silver surface of the daguerreotype, and eventually replaced the earlier process in popularity. Although still in demand from conservative customers, and those who appreciated their high level of the detail, daguerreotype had essentially disappeared by the early 1860s.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, September 2009

References
Alan Davies and Peter Stanbury with assistance from Con Tanre, The Mechanical Eye in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985
The Grolier Society, The Australian Encyclopaedia, Third Edition, Grolier Society, 1977
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, A Concise History of Photography, Thames and Hudson, Germany, 1965
Naomi Rosenblum, World History of Photography, Abbeville Press, New York, 1984

The daguerreotype was a remarkably complex process. To make a daguerreotype you firstly had to clean a piece of silver plate to a mirror finish using a slurry made from pumice in oil, then give it a number of washings in nitric acid and water to remove the oil residue. Secondly the prepared plate had to be sensitised by exposing it to iodine vapour. Then the sensitised plate was placed in a camera and exposed to light, the exposure time varied according to the time of the day, the season of the year and the weather, and could be from three to thirty minutes. The silver plate was then exposed over heated mercury vapour until an image appeared and lastly it was fixed by placing the plate in a hot solution of common salt or a solution of sodium thiosulfate.

Keeping a supply of the correct chemicals, making sure the plates and workspace were kept free of dust and ensuring there was a supply of clean water all conspired to limit the practicality of travelling with a camera. This coupled with the lengthy exposure times, which were a result of deficiencies of these early photographic emulsions and the quality of the camera's lens, made the whole process complicated and unwieldy.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, September 2009

References
Janet Burger, French Daguerreotypes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, A Concise History of Photography, Thames and Hudson, Germany, 1965
Rudolf, Kingslake, A History of the Photographic Lens, Academic Press Limited, San Diego, California, 1989
Naomi Rosenblum, World History of Photography, Abbeville Press, New York, 1984

Daguerreotypes framed (2), 'Captain Keesing' and 'Mrs. Keesing', maker unknown, metal / glass / wood, [Australia], 1850

Two daguerreotypes, each with a wooden rectangular frame that has been painted gold. One shows a portrait of a man, the other a portrait of a woman. Each daguerreotype sits in an arched mount with a glass face. The glass has been painted white and gold to form a border around the image. The copper panel that forms the daguerreotype featuring the portrait of the man has been removed from its wooden frame.

Made: 1850

P3340

1850