Daguerreotypes are early silver photographs. They’re made by light from a lens subtly changing the reflectivity of the very outer surface of the metal on a polished silver plate. Though they’re beautiful, I thought I could get the effect in a much simpler manner.

These prints were actually made by laser etching the back of mirrored sheets enough to distort the reflective film, but not to cut through it. The result is the holographic, illusory image you see here.

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The idea came to me when I looked at the walls of my (then) new room in SF and decided I needed two things: decor and music. I’d secured and restored an old Victorian looking vanity table/dresser and a few minor accouterments, but the room still needed something. After some CAD and fiddling with the TechShop laser cutter, I had my solution. I cannibalized some computer speakers for the hardware, found myself some nice oval frames on Ebay, and cut myself some housings with long bolts to stand the frames an inch or two away from the walls. I’ve been thinking of doing something similar, but etching away paint on metal mesh to make speaker portraits with bigger, more industrial speakers.