Southworth and Hawes by Mike Robinson and Grant Romer

This special two-hour conversation on Southworth and Hawes by Dr. Mike Robinson and Grant Romer features many examples of S&H’s work from the collection at The George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. Robinson is an artist-practitioner, teacher, conservator, and historian of the daguerreotype. In 2017, he earned his PhD in Photographic History with dissertation titled TheTechniques and Material Aesthetics of the Daguerreotype. He has researched and written on the studio practice of Southworth and Hawes for the Young America catalog and for the Society’s Daguerreian Annual. Robinson has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in 19th-Century Photographic Processes at Ryerson University in Toronto, and has lectured and taught daguerreotype workshops in Toronto, Rochester, New York City, Lacock Abbey (UK), Bry-sur-Marne (France), and Kolomna (Russia). Romer is recognized as a world authority on early photography, particularly the history, practice, and conservation of the daguerreotype. He has written and lectured extensively on many other aspects of photographic history. In 1976, he joined the staff of the George Eastman House, becoming its Conservator of Photography in 1989. He served as curator for many exhibitions while at Eastman House, most notably, "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes." The Daguerreian Society awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He has also advised many of the world’s most important institutional photographic collections. In 2014, Romer and Ariadna Cervera Xicotencatl founded the Academy of Archaic Imaging, dedicated to exploring the history of the application of technology to depicting visual experience. Presented on June 27, 2020.