A photogram is a Photography 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.
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 for a shorter time or through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey,
The technique is sometimes called cameraless photography.[According to Alexandra Matzner in Christian Schad 1895-1982 Retrospectief issued by the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (2009), , p. 216, Schad was the first artist to use the photogram technique, developed by William Henry Fox Talbot. The photogram was applied by Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy and Chargesheimer after its introduction by Christian Schad, according to the author. However, this is not substantiated through further reference by Matzner. The Dutch catalogue was also issued in German by the Leopold Museum in Vienna (2008).]
Variations of the technique have also been used for scientific purposes, in shadowgraph studies of flow in transparent media and in high-speed Schlieren photography, and in the medical X-ray.
The term photogram comes from the combining form (φωτω-) of Ancient Greek (φῶς, "light"), and Ancient Greek suffix (-γραμμα), from (γράμμα, "written character, letter, that which is drawn"), from (γράφω, "to scratch, to scrape, to graze").
History
Prehistory
The phenomenon of the shadow has long aroused human curiosity and inspired artistic representation, as recorded by Pliny the Elder,
[Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv, 14] and various forms of
shadow play since the 1st millennium BCE.
[Fan Pen Chen (2003), Shadow Theaters of the World, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1 (2003), pp. 25-64] The photogram, in essence, is a means by which the fall of light and shade on a surface may be automatically captured and preserved.
To do so required a substance that would react to light. From the 17th century,
Photochemistry reactions were progressively observed or discovered in salts of silver, iron, uranium and chromium. In 1725, Johann Heinrich Schulze was the first to demonstrate a temporary photographic effect in
Silver halide, confirmed by Carl Wilhhelm Scheele in 1777,
who found that violet light caused the greatest reaction in
silver chloride.
Humphry Davy and Thomas Wedgewood reported
[Sir Humphry Davy (1802) 'An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings Upon Glass and of Making Profiles by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver, invented by T. Wedgwood Esq. In Journal of the Royal Institution] that they had produced temporary images from placing stencils/light sources on photo-sensitized materials, but had no means of fixing (making permanent) the images.
Nineteenth century
The first photographic negatives made were photograms (though the first permanent photograph was made with a camera by Nicéphore Niépce). William Henry Fox Talbot called these
photogenic drawings, which he made by placing leaves or pieces of lace onto sensitized paper, then left them outdoors on a sunny day to expose. This produced a dark background with a white silhouette of the placed object.
In 1843, Anna Atkins produced a book titled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in installments; the first to be illustrated with photographs. The images were all photograms of botanical specimens, mostly seaweeds, which she made using Sir John Herschel's cyanotype process, which yields blue images.
Modernism
Photograms and artists who worked with(in)the medium have participated in/contributed to several studied/demarcated
Modernism, such as
Dada and Constructivism,
and in architecture in the formalist dissections of the Bauhaus.
The relative ease of access (not needing a camera and, depending on the medium, a darkroom) and perhaps the interactive to the point of feeling incidental[and therefore, automatized or mechanical - see Dada] nature of creating photograms[imagine, you could be a photographer or hobbyist who leaves something accidentally on film/photosensitive paper in a bright room] enabled experiments in abstraction by Christian Schad as early as 1918,
Christian Schad's 'schadographs'
In 1918, Christian Schad's experiments with the photogram were inspired by Dada, creating photograms from random arrangements of discarded objects he had collected such as torn tickets, receipts and rags. Some argue that he was the first to make this an art form, preceding Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy by at least a year or two,
and one was published in March 1920 in the magazine
Dadaphone[Hage, E. (2011). The Magazine as Strategy: Tristan Tzara's Dada and the Seminal Role of Dada Art Journals in the Dada Movement. The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies 2(1), 33-53. Penn State University Press] by
Tristan Tzara, who dubbed them 'Schadographs'.
Man Ray's 'rayographs'
Photograms were used in the 20th century by a number of photographers, particularly Man Ray, whose "rayographs" were also given the name by Dada leader Tzara.
Ray described his (re-)discovery of the process in his 1963 autobiography;
In his photograms, Man Ray made combinations of objects—a comb, a spiral of cut paper, an architect's French curve—some recognisable, others transformed, typifying Dada's rejection of 'style', emphasising chance and abstraction.
Other 20th century artists
In the 1930s, artists including Theodore Roszak, and
Piet Zwart also made photograms.
Luigi Veronesi combined the photographic image with oil on canvas in large-scale colour images by preparing a light-sensitive canvas on which he placed objects in the dark for exposure and then fixing.
The shapes became the matrix for an abstract painting to which he applied colour and added drawn geometric lines to enhance the dynamics, exhibiting them at the Galerie L'Equipe in Paris in 1938–1939.
Bronislaw Schlabs, Julien Coulommier, Andrzej Pawlowski and Beksinki were photogram artists in the 1940s and 1950s; Heinz Hajek-Halke and
Kurt Wendlandt with their light graphics in the 1960s; Lina Kolarova, Rene Mächler,
Dennis Oppenheim, and Andreas Mulas in the 1970s; and
Tomy Ceballos, Kare Magnole, Andreas Müller-Pohle, and Floris M. Neusüss in the 1980s.
Contemporary
Established contemporary artists who are widely known for using photograms are
Adam Fuss,
, Christian Marclay, and Karen Amy Finkel Fishof,
who has digitized and minted her photograms as NFTs. Younger artists worldwide
continue to value the materiality of the technique in the digital age.
Mauritian artist
Audrey Albert uses cameraless techniques to connect material culture to contemporary identities of
Chagossians.
Procedure
The customary approach to making a photogram is to use a
darkroom and
enlarger and to proceed as one would in making a conventional print, but instead of using a negative, to arrange objects on top of a piece of photographic paper for exposure under the enlarger lamp which can be controlled with the timer switch and aperture controls. That will give a result similar to the image at left;
[? Broken/omitted visual reference in the text] since the enlarger emits light through a lens aperture, the shadows of even tall objects like the beaker standing upright on the paper will stay sharp; the more so at smaller apertures.
The print is then processed, washed, and dried.
However, there are other arrangements for making photograms, and devising them is part of the creative process. Alice Lex-Nerlinger used the conventional darkroom approach in making photograms as a variation on her airbrushed stencil paintings,[Lange, B. (2004). Printed matter: Fotografie im/und Buch. Leipzig: Leipziger Univ-Verl.] since lighting penetrating the translucent paper from which she cut her pictures would print a variegated texture she could not otherwise obtain.
Another component of this medium is the light source, or sources, used.
Photograms may be made outdoors providing the photographic emulsion is sufficiently slow to permit it. Direct sunlight is a point-source of light (like that of an enlarger), while cloudy conditions give soft-edged shadows around three-dimensional objects placed on the photosensitive surface. The cyanotype process ('blueprints') such as that used by Anna Atkins (see above), is slow and insensitive enough that fixing an impression on paper, fabric, timber or other supports can be done in subdued light indoors. Exposure outdoors may take many minutes depending on conditions, and its progress may be gauged by inspection as the coating darkens. 'Printing-out paper' or other daylight-printing material such as gum bichromate may also enable outdoor exposure. Christian Schad simply placed tram tickets and other ephemera under glass on printing-out paper on his window-sill for exposure.
Conventional monochrome or colour, or direct-positive photographic material may be exposed in the dark using a flash unit, as does Adam Fuss for his photograms that capture the movement of a crawling baby, or an eel in shallow water. Susan Derges captures water currents in the same way, while Harry Nankin
Other variations include using the light of a television screen or computer display, pressing the photosensitive paper to the surface. Multiple light sources or exposing with multiple flashes of light, or moving the light source during exposure, projecting shadows from a low-angle light, and using successive exposures while moving, removing or adding shadows, will produce multiple shadows of varying quality.
List of notable photographers using photograms
-
Markus Amm
-
Anna Atkins
[Brigit Katz, " How the first female photographer changed the way the world sees algae", Smithsonian, 30 May 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
-
Walead Beshty
-
Christopher Bucklow
-
Kate Cordsen
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Olive Cotton
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Susan Derges
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Michael Flomen
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Adam Fuss
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Heinz Hajek-Halke
-
Raoul Hausmann
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John Herschel
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Edmund Kesting
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Len Lye
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László Moholy-Nagy
[" At first light: the most iconic camera-less photographs – in pictures", The Guardian, 27 November 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
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Alice Lex-Nerlinger
-
Floris Michael Neusüss
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Anne Noble
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Andrzej Pawlowski
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Pablo Picasso
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Man Ray
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Alexander Rodchenko
-
Theodore Roszak
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Christian Schad
[" Christian Schad: Schadograph: 1918." MoMA. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
-
Greg Stimac
[" Review: Greg Stimac/Andrew Rafacz Gallery", New City Art, 19 June 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
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August Strindberg
[Söderberg, R., Munch, E., Strindberg, A., & Teeland, J. (1989). Edvard Munch, August Strindberg: Fotografi som verktyg och experiment: Photography as a tool and an experiment. Stockholm: Alfabeta.]
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Jean-Pierre Sudre
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Kunié Sugiura
[" Profile: Kunie Sugiura," "This is Not a Photograph", Carleton College, 2001. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
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Henry Fox Talbot
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Mikhail Tarkhanov
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Elsa Thiemann
[" Elsa Thiemann: 1929–1931 Bauhaus student", 100 Years of Bauhaus, Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar, 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.]
-
Luigi Veronesi
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Kurt Wendlandt
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Nancy Wilson-Pajic
-
Keith Carter
See also
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Luminogram – photogram using light only with no objects
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Schlieren photography – light is focused with a lens or mirror and a knife edge is placed at the focal point to create graduated shadows of flow and waves in otherwise transparent media like air, water, or glass
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Shadowgraph – like Schlieren photography, but without the knife-edge, reveals non-uniformities in transparent media
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Chemigram – camera-less technique using photographic (and other) chemistry with light
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Neues Sehen – László Moholy-Nagy's 'New Vision' photography movement
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Cliché verre – semiphotographic printmaking technique using a negative created by drawing
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Drawn-on-film animation – cliche-verre technique in which movie film emulsion is scratched and drawn frame-by-frame
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Cyanotype – photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print
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Kirlian photography – photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges
