Recreation

Gustav Oehme, Three Young Girls, Daguerreotype c.1845

Gustav Oehme was a german photographer who was famous for his Daguerrotype images.
Daguerreotype is an image that is a direct positive made in the camera on a silver plated copper or brass plate. The surface of a daguerreotype is like a mirror, the image is made directly on the silvered surface, is very fragile and can be rubbed off with a finger, and the finished plate has to be angled to reflect some dark surface into it to view the image properly. The image in a Daguerreotype is formed by the amalgam, or alloy, of mercury and silver.
The image is formed on the surface of the silver plate (resembling the surface of a mirror) and is unstable; it can easily be rubbed off and will oxidize in the air, so from the outset daguerreotypes were mounted in sealed cases or frames with a glass cover.
When viewing the daguerreotype, a dark surface is reflected into the mirrored silver surface, and the reproduction of detail in sharp photographs is very good, partly because of the perfectly flat surface.

Gustav Oehme, displays a feeling for grace and symmetry in the grouping of the figures and an unusual sense of presence in the direct level gaze of the three youngsters.

 Three College Students
 I kept the picture similar to the original however instead of looking at the camera we looked in a different direction than the girls did. We also didn't have to sit there for a long time like the people who were featured in daguerrotype. I feel that instead of looking in the camera it looks as if we are looking at something that makes the view want to know know more about.