Camera-less Photographs
Photograms
A photogram is a photograph image made without a camera. It works by exposing a light sensitive material (i.e. photographic paper) to light while objects are placed on the surface. The images come out as a negative shadow that show variables in tone depending on the how transparent the objects are. The photographic paper appears black, as it is white, objects which receive no light appear white and semi transparent objects, grey.
This technique, which is sometimes referred to as cameraless photography, was invented by photographer Man Ray, who called them rayographs. The technique has also been used for scientific purposes and is similar to an X Rays. |
MY WORK
1.
My first time making photograms I was just experimenting because I had never done it before. I tried placing random objects under the enlarger and didn't touch the settings at all. I followed the instruction when developing the images and came out with some standard looking images. I didn't know how the process worked so I was essentially just trying out things. The outcome was that the edges of the objects ended up quite sharp and the wasn't much variation in colours, just straight black and white. To improve I would try to do more tests because I didn't do very many and I would try experimenting more with levels and the time I open the light for. Also I would try not to over expose at all because the one of the photograms came out quite dark and another had white around the edges.
2.
My second attempt at making photograms came out a bit better. First off I used larger paper so I was able to fit bigger objects in and have a more complete looking image. I experimented with a different selection of objects this time around, using a roller, my own hand and a thermometer as my main subjects. My first two tries came out fine but didn't look like anything special, appearing just as some hard to recognise black and white shapes, with little detail coming out. However on my last image, which was of a thermometer, a wire and a piece of plastic, came out very well. It was detailed and the composition of objects looked interesting. I liked how the thermometer came out since it is a transparent object so it looked interesting.
3.
In this set of photograms I used what I learned in my previous attempts. Particularly I used a lot of transparent/translucent and metallic objects as I observed the way they came out in my earlier experiments and I feel they create an interesting effect and have the potential to make beautiful images. I used various transparent plastics, and many different metals such as a clip, spoon, staples, spring. However my favourite object in this set is the pen as it contains a balance of metal and transparent plastics. It is also similar to the thermometer from one of my last photograms which was what inspired a lot of the ideas I experimented with in this set. Something interesting I observed when looking at the images after they developed was how even objects which are not at all transparent like the metals come across as so anyway as they will often have a blank white in the centre but be more light and similar to the backdrop around the edges.
What I need to work on in future attempts is arrangement because while I have discovered ways different objects can create different effects I have not yet tried to arrange these objects in interesting ways to make more beautiful images. I want to experiment using symmetry and patterns in my next set of photograms.
What I need to work on in future attempts is arrangement because while I have discovered ways different objects can create different effects I have not yet tried to arrange these objects in interesting ways to make more beautiful images. I want to experiment using symmetry and patterns in my next set of photograms.
Man Ray
Man Ray (1890-1976) was an American visual artist. He contributed significantly to the "Dada" and "Surrealist" movement. He was best known for his photography as he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He was also known for his work with photograms, "rayographs" as he called them. He made these by placing objects, like coils of wire, onto photosensitised paper and exposing them to light. He had photographed everyday objects like lightbulbs and rolls of film before but the photogram process recreated these images in a new unique way. The rayographs were a new way of seeing things as the outcomes were abstract and surreal.
László Moholy-Nagy
Laszlo Maholy Nagy was a hungarian photographer (and painter) who was heavily influenced by constructivism and an advocate for integrating industry and technology into the arts. He was shaped by dadaism, suprematism, constructivism and debates about photography. His interest in photography encouraged his belief that artists' understanding of vision had to be specialise and modernise. His interest's in the qualities of space, time and light endured throughout his career and transcended the very different media he employed. Whether he was painting or creating photograms he was always interested in studying how all these basic elements interact.
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso is known as the 20th Century's most prolific artist and as well as that he was one of the most experimental. There was no style or medium he wasn't willing to explore. This meant that he was even able to explore the realm of photography in his career, an area his not commonly known for being part of.
Chemigrams
A chemigram is a photographic image made by painting onto light sensitive paper, resembling a watercolour painting. They were invented by the Belgian artist Pierre Cordier in the 1950s.
Pierre Cordier
Pierre Cordier developed the chemigram as a means of artistic expression. In 1956, while writing to a woman with nail polish on photographic paper he discovered what he later called the chemigram. This technique combines the physics of painting (varnish, oil, wax) and the chemistry of photography (photosensitive emulsion, developer, and fixer), without using a camera or enlarger, and in full light". It opened up a new visual space at the boundaries of painting, photography, and writing, allowing him "to create entrancing images impossible to realise by any other means. Working like a painter, he replaces the canvas with photographic paper." Alongside his visual research, he continued in his career as a professional photographer, finally abandoning it in 1967. Thanks to the encouragement of Otto Steinert, the founder of the Subjektive Fotografie movement, Cordier produced many chemigrams as well as photographic self portraits which were then exhibited in 1958 during the Subjektive Fotografie 3 exhibition in Cologne.
MY WORK
1
In my first set of chemigrams I didn't know how to make them effectively so the outcomes are not the amazing. They came out with a lot of darker shades of greys, blues and browns. I experimented with the the chemicals on the photographic paper and made a set of simple shapes and lines. I felt the one with the best outcome was when I managed to create some brighter colours as it shows a more of contrast between light and dark, rather than just a few dark colours and blurs.
Adam Fuss
Adam Fuss' work is still photography. He experiments with unconventional photographic processes which eventually led to him abandoning the camera. His work reinterprets early photography techniques, particularly camera-less methods of the daguerreotype and photograms. He is best known for life size photograms of water. He emphasis' themes of transformation and perception and avoids the detailed clarity of traditional photography.
Liz Deschenes
Liz Deschenes is a visual contemporary artist based in New York City. Her work consists of post conceptual photography and minimalism. She has spent many years exploring the technical aspects of photography so her work features themes revolving around those areas heavily. Her art is often reflexive of herself in a beautiful way, as she switches between creating photographic images and three-dimensional scultures. The photos she had featured in the 2012 Biennial are photograms made by exposing photo sensitive paper to light and recording the variations in tone. Many artists use this technique to capture silhouettes of objects placed on the paper but Deschenes however, exposed the paper unobstructed outside, documenting the appearance of the ambient light. She has significant interest in the properties of photography, light, and sight.
Negatives
My first set of negatives were purely experimental as I knew virtually nothing about negatives. Therefore I basically applied the salt and food colouring pretty randomly to the plastic. At first I felt the one on the far right would be the best for prints and would produce the best prints but in hindsight the middle one looks the best in my opinion as a handmade negative and I would have experimented more with printing with it as the print I've already made came out well. The handmade on the negative didn't look as nice as I would have liked and I felt its appearance is boring, as well as the print I made.
Negatives Print
My first set of negative prints came out very interesting looking. When I first made the prints and put them in the developing liquid the paper looked very dark at first so I thought I had overexposed them. Since I thought my first handmade negative would likely have the best outcome and I didn't want to waste it through overexposing I decided to try it a few more times and each time it looked as though I had overexposed as they were all very dark, so many of these prints are of the same negative. However when I scanned the prints they were significantly brighter than before and even though the four of them are of the same negative the outcomes of each were still different enough to be interesting. Some came out looking very bright and had a white border which I felt looked good and others were darker and more closer in. The other two handmade negatives also had positive outcomes. In future negative prints I will do them with a more varying array of negatives and experiment more with different chemicals and lighting settings, such as purposely underexposing.