Portrait of Unidentified Daguerreotypist

Among photography's first photographic advertisements, this image presents a formally dressed man exhibiting nine different daguerreotypes grouped in a display frame. In his left hand he holds two closed, cased daguerreotypes; two more closed cases lay on the table, which is draped with a floral cloth. He may have been the daguerreotypist of those images, presenting and promoting his own wares. Perhaps he was a specialist in portraiture since the visible images are all portraits with a variety of sitters and poses. On the other hand, maybe the photographs are of members of a family from whom he, or the person for whom the daguerreotype was made, had been separated. Facing the camera directly, the man even presents himself like a beacon of light in his gleaming white shirt.