WHAT ARE PHOTOGRAMS?

The dictionary interpretation of the word Photogram, is as follows:

"a shadowy image produced without a camera by placing an object in contact with film or photosensitive material and exposing it to light."

3 "Projections ..... of objects that dream and talk in their sleep"
is how Tristan Tzara described Man Ray's photograms

Our own bodies are a perfect example of the photogram in action.

Our skin is a photosensitive organ, and when we expose it to the sun there is a pigmentation change - it turns brown. Of course is we get too much exposure we can also get burnt. By the end of summer we often see basic images on peoples skin where the sun has turned the skin brown in some places while those areas covered remain whiter. In effect these marks create an image as a form of photogram.

A simple photogram of a hand, the line in this image is actually a piece of string laid on the paper

Probably the most common and simplest form of photogram is a single object, say a human hand laid on ordinary black & white photographic paper, exposed to light and then developed in the normal manner, through a developer, fixer and then a wash.

Examples like this are used by many schools to introduce students to the concept of of light works on sensitive materials photography.

In the resulting print the hand appears as a negative silhouette - white against a black back ground. Where the hand stopped the light reaching the emulsion, the paper remains white - where the light reached the paper , it turns black

Like most photographic processes, it works on the basis that the action of light darkens silver.

SO WHAT SORT OF OBJECTS CAN WE USE TO MAKE PHOTOGRAMS????

Anyone can make photograms with a minimum of equipment and knowledge.

Absolutely any object that transmits, reflects, absorbs or even produces light can be used to make photograms, and as there is no need for specialist equipment like a camera film or an enlarger, it is an excellent method of learning basic photographic processing principles, having fun and creating wonderfully haunting images.