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Making Photograms was created as part of Photograph - online learning and teaching photography resources. This text accompanies the Making Photograms Online Resource.
In an age of digital, the Photograph online resources concentrate upon elemental and experimental ways of making images with light. While many of the ideas can be used just as easily with digital cameras (such as snapshot and narrative), other modules focus on lower tech methods which remind us of the origins of photography (such as making sun pictures and building a camera obscura. These resources concern themselves with making black and white images, and with tone, contrast, shadow and light. Other resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource Making Photograms Part I Photograms are, very simply, compositions of objects placed in direct contact with the photographic paper. They are sometimes called shadow pictures because the trace of the object is like a permanent ‘shadow’. Images go through the same procedures a ‘normal’ photograph would go through in the darkroom:
The more dense or opaque the object (e.g. keys) the more contrast and more clearly defined the result. Beautiful effects can also be produced by using objects which are semi-transparent or translucent, such as pressed flowers or glass. You will need:
* if you don’t have access to an enlarger you can experiment with an angle-poise lamp with a 100 watt bulb positioned as close as possible over the photographic paper Method: 1. Firstly decide on your design on a piece of ordinary paper 2. Set your enlarger on f-stop 8 or smaller, or set up your an angle-poise lamp very low down over the area where your photographic paper will be placed. 3. Focus your enlarger to project a field of light slightly larger than your photographic paper 4. SWITCH THE ENLARGER OFF to avoid ‘fogging’, i.e. over-exposing the photographic paper. 5. If you want to save paper make a test strip to allow you to find the optimum exposure time. (To find out how to do this see the section entitled ‘Test strips’ .) Otherwise, arrange your objects on a piece of photographic paper and expose your image for anything between 2 and 20 seconds. 6. Remove the objects and place the paper in the developer, stop bath and fix trays, in that order, for the time specified on the anufacturer’s recommendations. 7. Leave the print to wash thoroughly for up to 20 minutes and allow to dry. Making Photograms Part 2 This technique involves bringing objects closer to the enlarger and away from the photographic paper to allow experiments with scale. The object can be made smaller or larger depending on the distance of the enlarger head from the paper. You will need:
Method 1. Set your enlarger on f-stop 8 or smaller. 2. Focus your enlarger to project a field of light slightly larger than your photographic paper 3. SWITCH THE ENLARGER OFF! 4. Hold your object/s on a piece of glass or hard clear plastic close to the enlarger head. This brings the object much closer to the light source and means you can project light through the objects just as you would a photographic negative. Making Photograms Part 3 5. Alternatively, if the objects you are using are tiny enough you can place them on a thin slide of plastic into the space in the enlarger where the negative carrier is placed. WARNING: you have to be especially careful not to let the objects fall inside the body of the enlarger! Also the light emitted from the enlarger may cause paper used by other darkroom users to be fogged (overexposed) so keep the amount of time your enlarger is left on to a minimum. 6. If you want to save paper make a test strip to allow you to find the optimum exposure time. (To find out how to do this see the section entitled ‘Test Strips’ .) Otherwise, expose your image for anything between 2 and 20 seconds. 7. Place the photographic paper in the developer, stop bath and fix trays, in that order, for the time specified on the manufacturer’s recommendations. 8. Leave the print to wash thoroughly for up to 20 minutes and allow to dry. Additional information about Photograms/Artists Photogram artist? Materials supplier? Please suggest a link here. Other resources in this series: Introduction to the AccessArt Photograph Resource |
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