Looked like miners in the nineteenth century. Photo

People risked for gold life.

On the daguerreotypes in the 1850s, the young people direct their views to the camera. All of them have one thing in common – the desire to mine gold. Luce Lebart of the Canadian Institute of photography talks about the people who lived during the gold rush. This topic is dedicated a whole exhibition and book called “Gold and Silver” – a reference to the target while precious metals and silver iodide, which was used for daguerreotype pictures.

In the period between 1848 and 1854 in California gathered 300 000 people, hoping that luck smiles to them and they will get the gold. The hidden wealth of California and the sunlight gave her the nickname “Golden state”. However, a stunning gloss was the blood, sweat and a lot of hassle.

Most of the paintings are portraits of unknown people, the authors of the frames also remain unknown. Lebert says that these images show “a defining moment in the history of North America, as well as photography.” After printing, the pictures were decorated with gold. Lebert said that with the rush to the West occurred “rush to the photo” called dagerotipii. Luce Lebart calls the daguerreotypes new form of artistic adventurism.

Here are a few of the 106 frames, published in the book “Gold and Silver”.

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