An introduction to Photograms

1. Photograms

2. Lesson Objectives and Outcomes By the end of the lesson... You will be able to produce a basic photogram You will have developed your understanding of the way that light passes through objects. ALL OF YOU will have carried out a photogram experiment SOME OF YOU will have produced a successful photogram image.

3. What is a Photogram? A shadow image No film involved Working directly with light and Photographic paper.

4. Why make a Photogram? Really good introduction to the darkroom Simple but effective You can learn a lot about light; it's importance in Photography, the way it passes through objects, the way it reacts with photographic paper.

5. History of Photograms... Used a lot by Surrealist Photographers in the 1930s, for example...

6. Man Ray

11. Moholy Nagy

13. Photograms are still valid as an art form today, and used in Contemporary Art, for example.. Modern day

14. Walead Beshty Taking a Contemporary approach to the Photogram technique, Contemporary Artist Walead Beshty creates these large scale multicoloured Photograms, produced by folding the (colour sensitive) Photographic paper and then exposing it to light in overlapping layers...

20. Beshty; exhibition at the Hirshorn Gallery, Washington, 2009.

21. So.... Photograms; a serious Art Form in their own right. Used by artists to explore shape, form, tone, representation, the relationship between 2 and 3 dimensions

22. However... We are not going to be using them in this way today. We are going to be using them in a more fun way to make our own...

23. Photogram Christmas Cards! Here are some I made earlier...

30. Method in brief... Choose your objects In the darkroom, arrange these objects on a piece of photographic paper Expose this paper to light using the enlarger Develop the paper in the photographic chemicals.

31. What am I looking for? Technically, a successful photogram should have; A range of tones in the image Some clear blacks and some clear whites.

32. Remember... The object will look different depending on whether it's opaque, transparent or semi-transparent The objects will come out WHITE, the space inbetween them will be BLACK. Try to think about the PATTERNS the objects will produce and the space inbetween them.

33. Really brief Darkroom health and safety Dont' get your hands, clothes etc in the chemicals! Don't run or dance! Always keep the photographic paper in the dark/ in the sealed pack unless you are ready to expose it Don't make a mess...

34. The end...Good luck!