Dr. Mike
Mike Robinson's PhD dissertation, The Techniques and Material Aesthetics of the Daguerreotype explains why daguerreotypes look the way they do. It does this by retracing the pathway of discovery and innovation described in historical accounts, and combining this historical research with artisanal, tacit, and causal knowledge gained from synthesizing new daguerreotypes in the laboratory. Admired for its astonishing clarity and holographic tones, each daguerreotype contains a unique material story about the process of its creation. Clues from the historical record that report improvements in the art have been tested in practice to explicitly understand the cause for effects described in texts and observed in historic images. This research raises awareness of the materiality of the daguerreotype as an image, and the materiality of the daguerreotype as a process.
Portrait © Alexander Dzhus
Bry-sur-Marne, 2009
The Colours of the Daguerreotype, Mercury Variations
Penumbra Foundation NYC, Daguerreotype Workshop 2016
Image Object Exhibition NYC, 2013
Lecuture 2013, The Colours of the Daguerreotype
Exhibitions
Exposition Daguerre, le Génie de l'image, Villa Daguerre, Bry-sur-Marne, France November 22 - December 9, 2018.
Red Light, Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto ON, May 2 - June 29, 2018
Photography in its Birthplace, Fox Talbot Museum, UK, Sept 2017 - January 2018
Mirrors with Memory: Daguerreotypes from Library and Archives Canada National Gallery of Canada, Sept. 2015 - April 2016.
Image Object, Penumbra Foundation, NYC 2013
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Photography Galleries, Toronto, ON, 2008 - 2012
Exposition " Vanité, Mort, que me veux-tu ? " YSL Gallery, Paris, France, 2010
The Philippe de Montebello Years, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY Oct. 2008 - Feb. 2009
Daguerréotypes contemporains internationaux et Diorama de Bry-sur-Marne, Bry-sur-Marne France, 2009
The Intimate Gaze, Campbell House Museum, Toronto ON, May 2009
Daguerreian Niche, The Daguerreian Society, Pittsburgh, PA, September 2005
History in the Making, The Ryerson Gallery, Toronto, ON, May 2004
Secret Victorians, The Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, CA, March 2003
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, June 2002
Mirror with a Memory, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, November 2001
Published Work
Topics in Photographic Preservation 2015 A Twin Paradox: A Study of Preservation and Disfigurement of Southworth and HawesDaguerreotypes
The Daguerreian Annual, 2014 Sterling C. McIntyre’s Panoramic Views of San Francisco
The Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 2010 Monitoring the photographic process, degradation and restoration of 21st century Daguerreotypes by wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
The Daguerreian Annual, 2007 The Southworth and Hawes Studio: a virtual tour of their Operating Room
Young America; The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes, 2005 Article A Style Peculiar to Themselves: an investigation into the techniques of Southworth and Hawes
Coming into Focus, 2001 Albumen and salted paper chapter for the textbook on alternative photographic processes
The Daguerreian Annual, 2000 The Making of 20 Daguerreotypes
Lectures and Workshops
Villa Daguerre, Bry-sur-Marne, France, 2018
SMP International Photo Conservation Studio, Genzano di Roma, Italy, 2018
The Museum of Organic Culture, Kolomna, Russia, 2017
Penumbra Foundation, New York, 2016-2019
Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum 2011 - 2019
The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, 1997 - 2015
AIC Photo Materials Group, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 2015
Daguerreotype housing workshop, Amherst College, MA, 2010
The Daguerreian Society Annual Symposium, 1997 - 2015
Mellon Collaborative Workshop in Daguerreotype Conservation at Harvard, 2009
Peter’s Valley Craft Centre, Layton, NJ, 2008 - 2010
Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, 2006
f295 Symposium, Pittsburgh, PA, 2007
McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA, 2005
Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN, 2004
The Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, 2004
The National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2003 - 2004
The Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, 2001