Photograms

A photogram is a photograph that is made without the use of a camera

You make a photogram by placing objects directly onto a light sensitive material and exposing it all to light… The result is a negative shadow image that will vary in tone depending on the opacity of the object placed on top.

Henry Fox Talbot, ‘Photogenic drawings’

Anna Atkins, England 1854

Anna Atkins was the first woman photographer.

•Her father was a British scientist and friend of Henry Fox Talbot’s and another scientist and photo pioneer, John Herschel.

•Atkins became interested in making accurate drawings of plant life, and used photography and the cyanotype process as her tools.

Anna AtkinsBritish Algae: Cyanotype Images

First book illustrated with photographs.

Laszlo Maholy Nagy, Austria 1919

Man Ray, New York 1922

Man Ray, ‘Rayograph’

Both Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray brought photograms from the scientific to the realm of art.

•They often used 3-dimensional objects to see how they would translate onto a 2-dimensional photo (light) sensitive surface.

•They used an artificial light source and sometimes moved the light and the objects around during exposure .

Photogram principle, from Wikipedia Encyclopedia

When creating a photogram, the objects you choose and the way that they react to light, will determine the look of your image.

It’s all about translucency… how much light can pass through the object to the paper?

Les Rudnick

From ‘photograms art and design’www.photograms.org

Les Rudnick

Everyday, ordinary objects, three dimensional

Les Rudnick

Outlines, two dimensional

Patterns, repetition

Les Rudnick

Les Rudnick

Patterned glass

Les Rudnick

Same glass, different positions

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/S…

Leaves, multiple exposures

Adam Fuss

Combination of objects of varying translucency

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39991207@N07/3984751803/in/pool-photogram/ yes laura