or rather, imprints.
In the ending 1950s and the starting 1960s, when I was a boy, somebody showed us this unique but simple photo technique. I was so impressed that I immediately began to experiment. The imprints are created using traditional silver-gelatin photographic paper. But to start, the darkroom is essential. In my case it was a bathroom. Then I bought a pack of photo paper, developer and fixer.
In a darkened bathroom I arranged small objects on top a piece of photo paper. Then I switched on the lights in the bathroom for a few seconds. Exposed paper after that went to prepared developer. That was the moment of the real magic. Image suddenly started to appear - from nothing. When I was fully satisfied with it, followed brief wash in the clear water and another treatment in the fixer. Processing ended after another washing and drying the final photograph. Unfortunately none of my own imprints survived that huge gap of time.
Photograms were used in the 20th century by a number of photographers, particularly Man Ray, who called them "rayographs". His style capitalized on the stark and unexpected effects of negative imaging, unusual juxtapositions of identifiable objects, variations in the exposure time given to different objects within a single image, and moving objects as the sensitive materials were being exposed.
Light-sensitive material may be almost anything. For sure you met with the effects of photogram even without knowing it. Fade out old newspapers, cloths, wood etc. with darker marks on their surfaces. The contours of you swimsuit on your freshly burnt skin is another but the same example. In fact light-sensitive is everything - it depends only on the time or intensity of light exposure.
For me the most horrible and surrealistic photograms are shadows casted by people on the walls of Hiroshima, after the blast of atomic bomb.
Keynote:
From photograms I have learned that light is not irrecoverably fleeting moment as it may seem, but can be recorded.
Category : Influence