Getty Museum

[Portrait of a man posed with books]

Date

about 1840

Medium

Daguerreotype

Culture

American

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

This stylish sitter steadied his right hand in his coat sleeve and his left on two books, which would have helped him to remain motionless during an uncomfortably long exposure. The very earliest daguerreotypes could require an exposure time of anywhere between two and five minutes. Exposures varied greatly from winter to summer and according to early morning, midday, and afternoon light. Because of the lengthy exposure, the white of the man's shirt and collar has turned to blue, a feature characteristic of many early daguerreotypes. He stands close to the cloth backdrop, illuminated by sunlight from a frontal source. The distortion in his hands probably resulted from a poorly ground lens of the kind used by many of the earliest daguerreotypists in America.

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