Photograms

A photogram is making a print in a photo lab without using a camera. By placing objects onto a piece of light sensitive paper in a dark room, you can use a light source to then expose onto the paper capturing the silhouettes of your objects.

History;
There were many experiments, before cameras existed where the arrangement of objects on light sensitive materials, which were originally named 'photogenic drawings.'
William Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was the first person to experiment with photograms, exposing things using the sun before developing.


Equipment you will need;
Darkroom
Lightsource (enlarger)
Sheet of glass
Safelight
Light sensitive paper
Developer
Stop bath
Fix bath
Water
Developing trays
Cylinders  (measure chemicals)
Drying rack

Photograms- Process;
1) Prepare your objects in the space provided, ready for when you turn the lights off.

2) Once the lights have been turned off, turn on your safety light, take out your light sensitive paper and arrange the objects.

3) When you have arranged your objects, then expose your picture for around 5-10 seconds, depending on your light source- Shorter you leave it the lighter the shade and vice versa.

4) Once it has been exposed, place your picture in the developer to bathe for 1 minute, then place into the stop tray for a further 30 seconds.

5) Lastly, place your picture into the fix bath for 2 minutes.

6) At this point you can turn on the lights. Let your picture soak in water for 5-10 minutes before placing in a drying rack.

Mood boards on Photograms;

Man Ray;

1890-1976
In his career, Ray contributed to the Dada and Surrealist movements.
The development of his 'Rayographs' proved very popular, he quoted that they were 'startlingly new and mysterious.' Ray was good at composition, therefore his pieces had a beauty to them. He saw his Photograms as inspiration and a 'creative breakthrough' and went on to create more surrealist photograms and also human figure photograms.

'The Kiss' 1922- Man Ray.
In this composition, we see silhouettes of two faces and two hands caressing each face. There is a slash straight across the faces which could essentially be intentional or accidental. There is slight contrast within the composition, the faces are more vivid in tone compared to the hands which are the brighter areas of the composition. This contrast makes it easier to distinguish between the two elements. Subjectively, the placing of the hands, which are taking the majority of the composition, presents a feeling of desperation and intensity of the kiss. The experimental effect to the photo gram makes the outcome even more intimate, almost as if they are not aware of the photo gram being taken. The lack of detail that comes with the style of photo grams, is somewhat interesting creating a silhouette. There is no knowing as to who these people are, what they look like, their gender. Subjectively, it could represent an overall feeling of the emotion of love or passion. To me, this photo gram of Ray's intrigues me the most as the subjects are so simple yet it can give a powerful impact. I am interested in the fact that the subject take up all of the composition. 

Ethan Jantzer;

Jantzer creates colourful photo grams does this by creating intense flashing lights from various distances and angles. He creates the colour by shining the light through coloured liquid, such as dish washing soap and Gatorade. He says that he sees this as simple beauty, he can focus on simple subjects allowing the experiment for colour, light and texture whilst pushing the boundaries of the photography he's using.

This Photogram by Jantzer interests me the most. The composition is as simple as it can be, Jantzer seems to have not composed this photogram previously as he took it on the spot, therefore he did not know or plan what the outcome will look like. Subjectively, there are fish, presumably in a fish tank/bowl. In this particular photogram, he has captured some movement from the fish, yet because the process of producing a photogram is quick, it has left defined outlines of the fish. Also, as there is movement, there is a difference in tones compared to his other pieces above. The shadowing is something that Jantzer wants to achieve in his photograms and I feel that this is one of his most successful. The subject matter seems suited to the technique of a photo gram due to it's simplicity and rawness. The different colours that he has achieved is quite interesting. As well as shadowing, it looks almost layered and merged due to the different colours produced. He has used 2 main colours which are yellow and blue, some have merged into eachother to create a deep red. Objectively, the mood created is somewhat positive, the white background against the vibrant fish colours portray a clear and fresh feeling as if you're looking into the fish tank reflecting the ease of life these fish must have.

 

1926
This photo gram by Moholy-Nagy shows perfectly his experimentation with using this style of photography. Objectively, in this composition, the objects are 2 hands and a paintbrush. There are also some lines of string in the background. Subjectively the layering that is used in the composition, creates ambiguity which would confuse the viewer to an extent.  I feel that this type of photogram links in well with the art movement, surrealism. This is similar to the artist and photographer Man Ray as he was a surrealist artist/photographer. Both Ray and Moholy-Nagy were photographers around similar time periods. Moholy-Nagy could possibly have been influenced by Ray and his works which led him onto his own experimentation. Again, the lighting varies due to exposure time. You can see on one hand the tone is brighter compared to the other hand in the background. To me, this portrays an order, it looks as though the hand is on top of the brush, which is on top of the hand, which is then on top of the lines, however the hand in the background appears to be transparent, making it difficult to distinguish how this has been achieved. I enjoy these complicated compositions of photo grams as the feeling of confusion can occur and it leaves the viewer wanting to explore further and deeper into the photo gram.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy-Photograms 1922-1943
Moholy-Nagy wanted to create and capture light from different angles, creating different intensities. He ended up no longer using opaque objects, but transparent such as glass, liquid and veils, and often superimposed them to enhance the texture.








My Photogram experiments;

Above are my experiments on using the style of photograms. I am overall really pleased with how these have turned out. I firstly started off with a smaller piece of light sensitive paper and placed my objects under the enlarger. For my smaller ones I produced the falling men (the ones with less on) and the piece containing a peacock necklace and dove necklace. Previously I had completed a test strip to determine the amount of seconds I should expose the paper for. I ended up exposing the paper for only 2 seconds as the light on the enlarger was bright. I was pleased with the clear, defined outline of my objects in these. I personally like the detail captured in my dove necklace. For my second attempts, I moved onto larger paper to about size A4 and expanded on my devious designs and composition. These came out very well also and I would definitely consider experimenting more with using photograms in future projects.