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• Issue #220
• Article

By Alex Novak

You'll want to put these dates for next year's Daguerreian Society Annual Conference and related events into your calendars now: Oct. 19-23, 2016. Most of the various events will be held at the newly refurbished Wyndham New Yorker Hotel on 34th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City near Penn Station. This is expected to be the largest and most important series of events on 19th-century photography in the world next year. It will be easy to attend from wherever you are with direct access from nearly any place in the U.S. or international location to one of the three nearby international airports.

The program is coming together, and the speakers and list of topics are exciting indeed. Some of the top 19th-century experts are already on the programs. More details will be available early next year, including information on early registration and hotel reservations.

PRE-CONFERENCE SYMPOSIUM

A one-day symposium on "How Contemporary Art Photography and Photography Collecting have been influenced by19th-century Photography and Processes" will be held on Oct. 20th. This special program will feature a panel session with top contemporary artists discussing how 19th-century photography and its processes have influenced their work, and presentations by curators and collectors on why they include 19th-century photography along with contemporary photography in their collections. Sarah Greenough from the National Gallery of Art will moderate the panel with top artists, such as Adam Fuss, Vera Lutter and Jerry Spagnoli. Other sessions will include photography expert and former head of Sotheby's Photography Denise Bethel speaking on this topic, and interviews with two of the world's top photography collectors. Attendees are also invited to the Grand Reception that evening, and the 19th-century Photography Show on Saturday as a part of their event registration.

ANNUAL SOCIETY CONFERENCE

The Annual Conference on 19th-century Photography itself will begin with tours on Wednesday, Oct. 19th and a Grand Reception on Thursday night, Oct. 20th. The full-day speakers' program on 19th-century photography will take place on Friday, Oct. 21st. Some of the top experts in the world will be on the program. There are also several smaller receptions planned for later Friday evening at different locations in the city.

Following The 19th-Century Photography Show and on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 22nd, the Society will have its annual cocktail party and banquet, followed by the Society's live auctions.

Photography-oriented tours are planned for Wednesday, Oct. 19th and Sunday, Oct. 23rd.

THE 19TH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW

On Saturday, Oct. 22nd, The 19th-Century Photography Show will be open to all Conference attendees beginning with the early bird opening at 9:15 am. But anyone can come to the show after paying a small fee of $15/$10 for students with school IDs. This is expected to be the largest for-sale exhibition of 19th-century photography any where, comprised of over 75 tables and—for the first time ever--15 exhibit booths, and with over 70 exhibitors, including most of the top 19th-century photography dealers in the world. This one-day event will be open to all. Information on exhibit and table space is available. Contact Alex Novak (info@vintageworks.net) or Michael Lehr at (manhat10ite@gmail.com) for details on exhibiting and/or Event sponsorships.

For more information on membership in the Society and next year's 19th-century Photography events, go to its new website here: http://www.daguerre.org. You can register and pay online. Members need to be signed in to get the member rates for the programs. If you plan on joining, it is best to do that first before registering for one or more of the events.

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formally board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.