The Silver Canvas : Daguerreotypes Masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Hardcover)

~ Bates Lowry (Author), Isabel Lowry (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Lowrys, a former museum director and a photographer, respectively, have produced a useful and well-crafted addition to the literature of early photography. Ample text, neither dense nor too spare, apprises the interested reader of the significant role of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in the progress of photography toward an enduring, approachable medium. Daguerre schemed within the parameters of early photography, stretching them a bit to invent the process that would bear his name. There is much charm in the daguerreotypes that illustrate this book, which the Lowrys chose carefully from the large and exceptional collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Their selections illustrate how the process preserved images of people, places, and things on "the silver canvas" and how these works, often intended to be more documentary than artistic, built an aesthetic within constraints of light, equipment, and subject. Recommended for general collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L.,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

In the Getty Museum's collection are nearly two thousand daguerreotypes, including such notable examples as John Plumbe's The United States Capitol, one of the earliest known photographs of the building; an 1849 image of Edgar Allan Poe; and the documentation of the first public demonstration of ether for surgery. This beautiful book's prologue, based on document and letters, traces Daguerre's search for a way to produce a permanent and exact image of the natural world through a camera lens. A series of six essays discloses the tremendous impact of the daguerreotype on the worlds of science and art, and includes discussion of individual daguerreotypes that amplify the essay's theme.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Getty Publications; First Edition edition (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892363681
• ISBN-13: 978-0892363681
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,163,209 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars none, December 25, 2005

By	jude (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Silver Canvas: Daguerreotype Masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Paperback)

If you are starved for information on daguerreotypes--like I was--get this book; otherwise pass it by. The reproductions are not great and you will not learn about the dagueereotype process--just a very vague description is given. The descriptions that accompany the photographs are very surperficial.