The Photogram.pptx

The Photogram
A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by
placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material
such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. This
photographic technique is an alternative way of creating cameraless photographs.
The usual result is a negative shadow image that shows variations
in tone that depends upon the transparency of the objects used.
Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those
exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear
grey.
The application of the concept of the photogram has its roots in the
primordial moments of the history of chemical-based photography.
During the early 19th century, as iron and silver based photographic
processes were being tried, images were made by placing botanical
specimens and delicate objects such as lace onto the chemically coated
paper and exposing using sunlight. This was done as an alternative to
drawing.
The first photographer producing photograms was William Henry Fox Talbot
refering to them as photogenic drawings or shadowgrams, which he made
by placing leaves and pieces of material onto sensitized paper, then left
them outdoors on a sunny day to expose. This produced a dark background
with a white silhouette of the object used.
Although, there is clearly artistic beauty in the arrangements of these objects
in even the earliest photograms, it was not until the early 20th century that
artists and photographers began to express new ideas via the photogram.
William Henry Fox Talbot, ‘Flowers, Leaves, and Stem’, 1838
Photogram as shown before by Talbot should be considered as traces, or
documents of existing shapes or forms. There are, of course, exceptions,
but after WWI, the experiments of Christian Schad, followed by Man Ray
and László Moholy-Nagy essentially changed the photogram from a process
for documentation to one of creative expression.
In 1918 Christian Schad, who was inspired by Cubism, began
experimenting in Europe by making cameraless photographic images. By
1919 Schad was creating photogenic drawings from random arrangements
of discarded objects he had collected such as torn tickets, receipts and
rags.
Schad's new imagery was
constructed by taking discarded
unimportant objects and arranging
them. The photograms created from
these arrangements had taken on a
new form and meaning not
considered previously. His
photograms are referred to as
‘Schadographs’.
Christian Schad, ‘Schadograph’, 1918
He preferred worn
materials, such as scraps of
paper and bits of fabric,
often searching for these
things on the streets and in
garbage cans. Schad
frequently extended his
assault on artistic tradition
by cutting a jagged border
around the Schadographs,
"to free them," as he
explained, "from the
convention of the square."
Christian Schad, ‘Schadograph’, 1918
It was arguably the Surrealist Man Ray who made the technique
popular. He stumbled across the process by accident when he placed a
small glass funnel, graduate and thermometer over an unexposed
sheet of paper that had accidentally been previously submerged in
developer. When he turned on the light he noticed silhouettes of the
objects begin to appear, distorted as the subject became further away
from the emulsion. He started to experiment with other objects
exposing them first to light and called the resulting photos rayographs.
Man Ray's rayographs have a three-dimensional feel with various tones
of grey as the three-dimensional subject distorts the light.
Fox Talbot's paper negatives are more two-dimensional because the
subject, feathers, leaves etc are in direct contact with the paper.
Man Ray had photographed
everyday objects before, but these
unique, visionary images
immediately put the photographer
on par with the avant-garde
painters of the day. Hovering
between the abstract and the
representational, the rayographs
revealed a new way of seeing that
delighted the Dadaist poets who
championed his work, and that
pointed the way to the dreamlike
visions of the Surrealist writers and
painters who followed.
Man Ray, ‘Rayograph’, 1922
He preferred to use translucent
and opaque objects on
photosensitive materials. He
intentionally used objects that
were three dimensional in order to
create unusual shadows of the
objects on the two dimensional
photosensitive surface.
Man Ray, ‘Rayograph’, 1923
In 1919 László Moholy-Nagy began experimenting with the process of making photograms.
He considered the mysteries of the light effects and the analysis of space as experienced through
the photogram to be important principles that he experimentally explored.
Moholy-Nagy proposed that a photogram was like a light painting and in the early 1920's
produced several photograms in which the two dimensional surface of the photosensitive paper
was exposed using only light from a flashlight.
He also experimented with the concept of motion in the photogram image by actually moving
objects during exposure. These ideas at the time were contrary with all of the teaching on the
photographic process - lack of vibration or movement during the taking or printing of photographic
images. Moholy-Nagy broke the chains of conceptual limitations and expanded photographic
possibilities.
“I would think that photogram is a better
name than “shadowgraph” because – at
least in my experiments – I used or tried
to use not alone shadows of solid and
transparent and translucent objects but
really light effects themselves, e.g.
lenses, liquids, crystal and so on.”
László Moholy-Nagy, ‘Self-Portrait’, 1925
He created via manipulation of light
and object, memorable images based
on the synergy of this combination.
His use of non-rigid and nonstructured materials as light
modulators allowed him to make
photograms which were
dematerialized in the conventional
photographic sense and more about
transforming the qualities of light into
imagery.
László Moholy-Nagy, ‘Photogram’, 1924
The photogram is known to popularise a distinctive style of photography, involving jagged angles
and contrasts and an abstract use of light.
“It's like creating an assemblage of sorts on a horizontal plane. There's this strange back and
forth, they are uncanny, or strangely familiar. There is always this sense of contact, of contiguity
with the real, but at the same time, of the real reformed into something that borders on the
unrecognizable.” (Anne Umland)
Preparation for Workshop
Please bring different objects to your workshop with Colin Jackson. The schedule for the
workshops is published on the i-cal. Please arrive outside of the store 10 minutes before the start
of your session.
The objects have to be waste objects that you have found in the streets of Medway.
Please bring materials of different structure and texture such as translucent or opaque objects.
In the style of Christian Schad look out for worn materials, discarded objects, searching for these
things on the streets, your personal environments and in the area of the university.
Enjoy the search and be creative with your objects. The more varied materials you will bring to
your workshop session the more fun you will have, achieving different visual results.