Can we identify a portrait without ever using an argument based on resemblance? That is the challenge posed in this article. In our first episodes we sketched the portrait of a young village photographer on the banks of the Erie Canal, John B. Roberts — the hero, as it were, of our serial — then […]
Auteur/autrice : serge@plantureux.it
EIGHT FACES ONE MAN? First of all, we really must thank Mr. Van Son for his enthusiasm and his boldness in reigniting a debate; so many debates have died out since various museums have turned into fortresses. People are no longer allowed to discuss their passions or their methods. What a tremendous loss! Let’s hope […]
We are proud to introduce the English version of an article which will be published in the next issue of Partita Doppia. Some subjects have become so celebrated that discussion around them has all but ceased. Vincent van Gogh’s photographic portraits are one of them. In his article, Jacques van Son presents a comparative discussion […]
ON THE DECISION TO COLLECT PHOTOGRAPHS Foreword For one hundred and fifty years, from 1839 to 1989, human beings produced images on paper, on glass, on metal, on porcelain, on cloth, on anything that could hold a trace of light. I will not call these images « analog. » I prefer to say physical photography, or material […]
The Train That Made Lincoln Visible In our first episodes we sketched the portrait of a young village photographer on the banks of the Erie Canal, John B. Roberts — the hero, as it were, of our serial — and the rather extraordinary story of how the single surviving copy of a small-town newspaper turned […]
PARTITA DOPPIA-III This third issue bears the title « Quando la fotografia diceva la verità ». This theme—“When Photography Told the Truth”—served as the guiding thread for the internship of this year’s Erasmus students, in 2026. Richard Avedon said: “All photographs are accurate; none is the truth.” For seventeen years now, Michele Smargiassi, in his book *An Authentic […]
This is the second episode of One Day in the Life of John B. Roberts, picking up where our Lyons Republican story left off and following a young canal‑town photographer into the years of Lincoln, the Civil War and Frederick Douglass.
Harar, ancient city in southern Ethiopia Rimbaud arrived in Harar for the first time in December 1880, after a journey from Aden to Zeila, followed by a twenty-day horseback caravan through the Somali Desert. At that time, the city was an ancient Muslim emirate under Egyptian control, with a population consisting of Harari, Oromo, Somalis, Arabs, Indians, and […]
INVITO A PARTECIPARE Biennale di Senigallia Edizione Intermedia – 2026 We invite historians, legal scholars, photographers, archivists, experts, and image scholars to submit contributions reflecting on the evidentiary and documentary role of photography in the digital age, across courts, archives, and everyday practices of the gaze. The study day will be held on Friday, June […]
PARTITA DOPPIA-II This second issue comes at a moment when the alignment of some major technology companies with political power has led many users to reconsider their choices. Claude — Anthropic’s artificial intelligence — carries the name of Claude Shannon. This is not a decorative coincidence: it is an intellectual lineage that this issue sets […]
THE LYONS REPUBLICAN Clyde, Lyons, Galen, Wayne, New York, The Empire State Clyde and Lyons, in Wayne County, New York, are paired communities whose identities pivot on a subtle distinction: Clyde remains an incorporated village within the Town of Galen, while Lyons, long the county seat and once an incorporated village, is now a hamlet […]
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 1: An Inquiry into Method
Digital technologies and artificial intelligence have transformed methods for identifying portraits, art, and ancient documents. While they offer new opportunities, they also introduce complexities.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 13: Timeline of Lincoln Portraits and Various Perspectives
Lincoln’s first recorded portrait was taken after his election to Congress, at age 37. Gibson Harris, a law student who worked in Lincoln’s office from 1845 to 1847, was a friend and roommate of Nicholas H.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 12: Facial Features
The subject daguerreotype portrait is seen from a low angle, approximately 8°. Among all known Abraham Lincoln portraits, there are no comparable examples.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 11: Physical Evidence
Dimensions of the leather case: 94 x 80 x 14 mm. Dimensions of the brass frame: 82 x 70 mm.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 10: The Photographer and His Notable Patron
The village of Clyde, like many small American towns, had a single photographic studio that saw a succession of operators. Wayne Morrison’s research provides a detailed account of the photographers who worked in Clyde’s Daguerreian Gallery:
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 9: The Stop at Clyde
The Village of Clyde, situated on the Clyde River, is part of the Town of Galen in Wayne County, New York. Located on the county’s southern border and west of Syracuse, Clyde had a population of 2,093 in 2010, while the town’s population was 4,290.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 8: Diverse Perspectives
Abraham Lincoln’s humble beginnings in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor in 1809 became a powerful symbol of his rise to the presidency. This narrative of Lincoln as a self-made man was reinforced by the stark contrast between his origins and his later achievements.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 7: Journalists on Board
The birth name of Henry Villard was Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard, from the German city of Speyer. As a teenager, he emigrated to the United States in the 1850s without his parents’ knowledge.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 5: 1,900 Miles in 12 Days
The route chosen for the journey to Washington was a somewhat circuitous one, traversing the States of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and passing through Maryland to the District of Columbia. It seems to have been the desire of Mr.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 4: A Discovery at a Manhattan Photo Fair
An anonymous image surfaced during a bustling New York photo fair, coinciding with the AIPAD event at Pier 94. This chapter retraces the circumstances of that discovery and then turns to a key objection that every observer, at first sight, raises: «Just one more Lincoln look-alike?»
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 3: False Hopes and True Disappointments
Identification and analysis of old photographs is a patient art; one is often surprised to understand how different one’s neighbor’s vision can be. Six examples follow of collectors or researchers who believed they had found a daguerreotype representing Lincoln.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 2: The Only Known Lincoln Portrait in Daguerreotype
Iconographers agree on only three daguerreotypes of Abraham Lincoln, but only one is an original portrait. We nearly lost the name of its creator entirely.
Lost Daguerreotype — Draft – Episode 1: An Inquiry into Method
Digital technologies and artificial intelligence have transformed methods for identifying portraits, art, and ancient documents. While they offer new opportunities, they also introduce complexities.
Lost Daguerreotype — DRAFT -Episode 10: The Photographer and His Notable Patron
The village of Clyde, like many small American towns, had a single photographic studio that saw a succession of operators. Wayne Morrison’s research provides a detailed account of the photographers who worked in Clyde’s Daguerreian Gallery:
BIENNALE DI SENIGALLIA “ARTHUR RIMBAUD AND PHOTOGRAPHY” II. Portraits of Rimbaud on the Shores of the Red Sea. Conference by Hugues Fontaine On the conference day, second speaker was Hugues Fontaine, well known for his meticulous investigations into photographs of the Horn of Africa from the period when Arthur Rimbaud stayed there, particularly in Obock […]