Daguerrotypes vs. Calotypes (Photography comparison)

Requirements:

MLA Formatting

Cite any and all outside sources

One page minimum

Answer the following in full sentences and a cohesive short essay format (at least 1 paragraph for each numbered section)

Topic:

1. Describe the specific technological and material differences that distinguish a Daguerrotype from a Calotype.

• • Think about what was unique to each process and what made did each medium/process do “better” than the other. What were the specific draw-backs to each compared to the other?

2. Explain how the technological and material differences of a Daguerrotype vs. a Calotype influence their formal and stylistic appearances. To answer this question, select 1 example of a Daguerrotype and compare/contrast its formal and stylistic features against 1 example of a Calotype chosen from the list below:

DAGUERROTYPES:

• • Daguerre, An Early Daguerreotype, Taken in the Artist’s Studio (c. 1837, daguerrotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Sabatier-Blot, Portrait of Louis Daguerre (1844, daguerrotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Daguerre, Shells and Fossils (ca. 1850, daguerreotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Unknown photographer, Post-mortem Portrait of Infant Girl (1852, daguerreotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Unknown photographer, Unidentified Dickerson Family Member (ca. 1855, quarter-plate daguerreotype) (Links to an external site.)

CALOTYPES:

• • Photographer unknown, Staff at William Henry Fox Talbot‘s commercial calotype establishment in Reading, Berkshire (1846, calotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Hill & Adamson, Thomas Duncan ( c. 1844: calotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Talbot, The Open Door from The Pencil of Nature (1844-46, calotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Talbot, Articles of China from The Pencil of Nature (1844-46, calotype) (Links to an external site.)
  • Talbot, The Fruit Sellers(~ Sep 9, 1845, calotype) (Links to an external site.)

3. Discuss how the difference materials, processes, and formal appearance of Daguerrotypes vs. Calotypes relate to and reveal the larger debates that surrounded photography from its beginnings: namely, is photography a science or an art?

• • Think about if a Daguerrotype or a Calotype would be regarded as more/less scientific or more/less artistic. What kinds of expectations or standards are held by each of this disciplines: science vs. art? How do these early forms of photography play into these difference values and ideas?
  • Think about subject matter, too; what kinds of subjects and objects were captured in the Daguerrotype and Calotype that you chose to discuss? How is subject matter a meaning choice that also speaks to these larger debates surrounding photography?