I had been thinking about the daguerreotype and its relationship to the ephemeral, how the antiquity of the process highlighted the transient nature of its subject. I began to consider what might be the briefest yet most vibrant instance available to this medium and then the thought occurred to me to construct this device.

In a darkroom a sensitized daguerreotype plate is place on top of the box. A firecracker is placed on top of the plate and then a piece of black anodized aluminum is secured over that. The firecracker is set off. The resulting explosion blows a hole in the aluminum, preserving the shape of the escaping energy. The light of the explosion exposes the daguerreotype plate creating an image of the release of the light.

The daguerreotype is then placed in a case and kept in the drawer in the lower portion of the box. The whole unit becomes a reliquary of that instant, preserving artifacts of a moment that was over almost as soon as it began.