Contemporary Daguerreotypists Japan Committee organizes an international exhibition and symposium on contemporary daguerreotypy.

Contemporary Daguerreotypes (http://cdags.org) was an online collective of twenty-first-century daguerreotypists formed by Alan Bekhuis in 2008. In 2012, Bekhuis and the collective organized IO-1(Image Objects Exhibition vol.1) at the Penumbra Foundation, New York, featuring thirty-three daguerreotypists from sixteen countries. In 2020, with around eighty individuals from twenty countries as its members, the site ceased updating. It was a hub for discussing the medium and sharing technical information that provided an invaluable resource for those interested in the process. IO-2 aims to build upon the foundations laid by Bekhuis and reinvigorate the community with another outstanding international event.

Contemporary Daguerreotypists Japan Committee hosts an international online symposium “Photography for Resilience: History, Technology, and Art of Daguerreotype” in conjunction with the exhibition “Care – Daguerreotype Today: In an Age of Uncertainty” to be held at PGI, Tokyo.

The symposium aims to explore socio-historical aspects of the 19c daguerreotypy, and contemporary iterations of the process. The committee invites speakers to reflect upon how we can inform and produce alternative understandings of our today’s relationship to historical imagery.