Photograms

What kind of photograph is this?
  • This photograph is a Photogram. A picture produced with photographic materials, such as light-sensitive Photographic Paper and differnt types of object, but without a camera. Man Ray refereed to Photograms as Rayograph. 

How do you think the artist created it?
  • The artist, in this case Man Ray, created this image by placing some objects on top of a piece of light sensitive paper. He arranged the objects into a desired lay out that he wanted to achieve. He then used a light source to shine light onto the light sensitive paper. After, he must have used some solutions like developer to make the paper show the image that it has captured.

What does it remind you of?
  • This photogram reminds me of an X-Ray because an x-ray uses different shades of black and whites which is what this Photogram is doing. Where the light has reached the paper is black and where the light has been blocked by an object, it has stayed as a white colour. Where the colours is not pure white and is a different shade of white, that's where the object it not opaque or the object is not flat on the paper so the light is partly gone through to reach the paper.

How might you describe it?
  • I will describe the Photogram as picture with lots of different shapes put together in a arrangement so that it creates an abstract image. The objects that have been used are mostly curved to create and image that is not boring neither to distracting to look at. The different shades of white show that not all the objects where opaque or that some object where not touching the paper .

Man Ray - Rayograph, 1922

How to make a photogram

Photograms are made from light sensitive paper and some objects to cover it so that it creates different shades from black and white on the page.

What you need:
  • Light sensitive photographic paper
  • A variety of objects
  • A dark room with Safe Lights (Also known as Red Light) that doesn't effect the light sensitive Photographic Paper
  • A light source
  • These chemicals :Developer, Stop Bath and Fix
  • Running Water
  • A place to hang the Photograms

Step 1: Make sure only the red light is on and not any normal light is            on in the room.

Step 2: Take out the light sensitive photographic paper and potion it under the light source so the light can cover the whole page.

Step 3: Place you object on top of the light sensitive photographic paper without making a lot of contract with your fingers and paper (create an abstract image).

Step 4: Turn on the light source for approximately 10 seconds and in the 10 seconds, you could move the objects around so that it creates a totally new picture.

Step 5: Move all the objects that were on top of the light sensitive paper to the side and pick up the light sensitive paper.

Step 6: Slide the light sensitive photograpic paper in developer and gently move the solution around so it covers the light sensitive paper. Leave it in there for 1 minute. Take it out of the developer and then place it in Stop Bath for a couple of seconds. Then take it out again and place it in fix for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Step 6: When the image is fixed, place it in running water for roughly 10 minutes.

Step 7: Finally remove all excess water with a sponge and then hang it up so it can dry fully.

Step 8: After fully dried, Your done. Take your light sensitve photographic paper and finally, its a Photogram.

Photogram 1

The lay-out of the objects look nice. The variety of straight and curves  create a effect. The overlapping of the objects create different shades of white. The targets that I would set my self to improve this photogram is adding more objects to reduce the amount of black there is. I would also move some objects around so that it creates a new type object altogether.

Photogram 2

In this photogram, I added more objects to the photogram so that there is much less black areas which makes the photogram seem very big a broad, it gives place for more imaginative thoughts. Next time, i would you lots of objects but i would place them so they create an abstract image. I would make the objects be at different hight so that there is different shades of white on the page instead of just black and white. I would also layer some objects on top of each other and place a variety of sizes of objects.