Photography is so much a part of our lives today that it is hard to imagine a time when it was both a new science and a new art. In the last decade, the switch from film to digital has been incredibly exciting, but nothing compared to that first fifteen years of photography, namely the Daguerreian Era. Razor sharp images on shiny silver plates caused the great scientists and writers of the day to wax prosaically that nature itself was being captured. It is only fitting that they have a timeless quality, even more fascinating now that the digital age is here. This allows us to present the oldest photographic process through the newest technology. Welcome to our Website, and journey with us through the history, art and lore of those first photos, the daguerreotypes. They are a virtual time machine. Look closely at these images and you are there, transported back through time and space to a bygone age and place that exists before your eyes when you view these magical objects. They are not movie sets, they are not actors, but real people and places as they really looked over a century and a half ago. -- Matthew Isenburg, Daguerreian Society Chairman of the Board and co-founder

The Daguerreian Society is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions dedicated to advancing an understanding and appreciation of the art, history, collection, and practice of the daguerreotype, as well as other photographic processes as they relate to the daguerreotype, through the holding of an Annual Symposium, the publication of the Daguerreian Annual (official yearbook of the Daguerreian Society), Newsletters for its members, and by maintaining a Website.

The Daguerreian Society's by-laws may be found here.

UPDATE: The By-law Committee has revised and updated the Society's by-laws to better conform with the changes in communication that have taken place in the past two decades as well as the current needs of our members. The revision is now complete, has been approved by the Board by unanimous vote, and approved by the members of the Daguerreian Society as part of the 2009 annual election ballot.

A summary of the changes was published in a recent Newsletter (April-June 2009: Vol 21, No. 2, pp. 4-5 -- a PDF version of this Newsletter is also available on-line here).

Matthew Isenburg, Chairman	Karen Kunz, Co-President	Mike Robinson, Co-President
Sally Anyan, Vice President	Jeremy Rowe, Treasurer	Cindy Motzenbecker, Secretary
Keith Davis	Greg French	George Whiteley