CBW About

The artist The makers hallmark The inspiration

Christopher Brenton West (BA Hons, Dip AD) was trained in and practiced silversmithing in the late 1970 and later went on to a First Class Honours Degree at Plymouth in Photography. He lives near Oxford.

He now teaches the art and makes commissions for artists and collectors. He advised in the production of 'Creation' (2009) a film about Charles Darwin.

The unique and inimitable attribute of some of these images is that they are produced on 999/1000 pure silversheets. These are hallmarked at the London Assay Office and carry his unique makers' mark 'CBW' illustrated above. There is an intrinsic value before the silver iodide image even appears.

Christopher Brenton West is one of the very few practicing Daguerreotypists in Great Britain.

The (slightly) technical bit.

The process involves sensitizing pure silver or silver-plated copper plates with elemental iodine. The images are exposed in a modern wooden large format camera (very similar to Victorian cameras ). The use of bromine,mercury and gold chloride are sometimes also employed in variations to the process. The work is painstaking to perfect. Factors such as temperature, humidity and available light all have a bearing on the outcome. Total control is almost impossible to achieve. They seem to have a life of their own sometimes. After exposure during development the picture appears on the very highly polished silver, it has an almost three dimensional quality.

As with the 19th century Daguerreotypists, the images are displayed in small boxes. The boxes are constructed of ultra-modern Carbon Fibre weave which envelops the silver image with an up-to-the-minute protective cocoon.The reasons for displaying in a box as opposed to an ordinary frame are twofold: to protect the image and to make a dark reflection (the lid) to facilitate viewing. The bright polished silver areas form the blackstraveling through the tonal range to white where the silver iodide is at its densest. If there is a bright background the image becomes very faint and the overall effect is mirror like.

Recently it has been found that framing the Daguerreotypes in deep frames with deep mounts (mats) and using non reflective museum glass also is a fantastic way to display these images.