Vignette With a Black Background Half-plate daguerreotype (4.25 x 5.5 inches) circa 1853 FromThe David Feigenbaum Collection of Southworth & Hawes. Illustrated in The Daguerreian Annual 1998 (The Daguerreian Society: 1999) page 215. Private Collection.

“Learn to look and see the difference under different lights in the same faces. Learn to see the fine points in every face, for the plainest faces in the world are human faces, belonging to human beings…” Albert S. Southworth, Comments at the National Photographic Association, 1873       VIGNETTES OR HEADS SIMPLY, improperly styled by some CRAYON DAGUERREOTYPES–This is our own style–we were the first to practice it, and in it are some of our very best pictures. Though we made many previously, it is more than four years since we adopted it. The strength and boldness of the effect can be equalled in no other way. No drapery attracts the eye from the face and its character. –From a promotional article by Albert S. Southworth in The Massachusetts Register: A State Record, for the Year 1852, p.327–328. Courtesy: Gary W. Ewer

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