About Jerry Spagnoli

Nationality: United States

Born: 1956

Jerry Spagnoli is best known for his photographs made using the daguerreotype process. This process was the first publicly available photographic process, dating back to 1839. Spagnoli began experimenting with creating daguerreotypes in San Francisco in 1994. 

It's a complicated photographic technique, and Spagnoli is considered to be the leading expert in its revitalization. After studying the effects early practitioners achieved, he began work on an ongoing series entitled. It was "The Last Great Daguerreian Survey of the 20th Century" in 1995.

Along with his work using historical techniques, he digitally post-processes wide-angle photographs. He also produces abstract images enlarged from film negatives. He also experiments with photographing people from great distances onto film. These images are then enlarged many times. This process Spagnoli calls 'Photomicrography.'

Spagnoli comments, "Ultimately, my use of various materials and methods is centered in my desire to make complicated stories out of the everyday world, which is my apparent subject matter. Photography allows me to engage viewers with images and ideas which are filtered through the abstracting apparatus of the camera and woven into the matrix of its rich history."