Mike Robinson, Eli Palmer First Revolution, 1839: Daguerreotypes And The Intimate Gaze

First Revolution, 1839 brings the experience
of the original “still revolution” to
a public immersed in widespread technological
and social change.

Daguerreotypes, the first publicly
available photographs, were invented
before the advent of electrical illumination
and had revolutionary social
consequences. Exposed on silvered copper
plates, daguerreotypes are small in
scale, yet powerful in effect. Best seen
in the low light of interior spaces, this
exhibition within the oldest remaining
brick home from the Town of York
recreates the intimacy of daguerreotypes’
original surroundings.

The exhibition features rare early
daguerreotypes made in Toronto, from
the collection of Steven Evans, and a
selection of new daguerreotypes by
Mike Robinson, the only photographer
practicing this technique in Canada
today. Robinson has produced new
daguerreotypes especially for the exhibition.
Displayed within the authentic
surroundings of Campbell House – on
a mantelpiece, by a bed, in a traditional
wooden cabinet – the exhibition
highlights the intimate relationship
that occurs between the viewer and the
photographic object. As daguerreotypes
were sometimes viewed in stereoscope,
there will be a reproduction stereoscopic
machine for viewing a specially selected
image. An exhibition in the19th-century
ballroom explains the medium’s origins
and celebrates the story of Eli Palmer,
Toronto’s first known daguerreotypist.

Lecture by Mike Robinson, May 14, 8 pm,
“Daguerreotypes, Past and Present.”

Curated by Liz Driver, Curator of Campbell House, in partnership with Mike Robinson