Snapshots of the Past

Daguerreotype portrait of an unidentified man, half-length – Historic Photograph Print

Daguerreotype portrait of an unidentified man, half-length, 1840 — historic photograph
Daguerreotype portrait of an unidentified man, half-length, 1840. Historic photograph from the Daguerreotypes & Early Photography collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic photograph captures Daguerreotype portrait of an unidentified man, half-length in remarkable detail. It comes from the Snapshots of the Past collection, curated over 25 years for its historical value.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Daguerreotype portrait of an unidentified man, half-length

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Few daguerreotypes from 1840 survive with their sitters still unnamed, and this half-length portrait of a man is one of them. The process was barely a year old when it was made: Louis Daguerre had announced his photographic method in 1839, and portrait studios were only beginning to open in Paris, London and New York. Exposures then could run several minutes, so sitters were asked to hold still, which explains the fixed, serious expression typical of the period. Because the plate is a single mirror-like image on silvered copper, the picture shifts in tone as the viewer tilts it, and that surface is worth looking at closely.

Created / published1840
Original scan1,320 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference425_Unidentified_man_halfle_1840

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Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.

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