Photograms

A Photogram is a photographic print made by placing objects onto light-sensitive paper and exposing it with light from above.

What is a Photogram?

DEFINITION LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotogramFLICKR LINK: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortismereartdepartment/sets/72157600624266064/

In the 1830s, William Fox Talbot, a pioneer of photography, started making photograms of plants, which he referred to

as ‘Photogenic Drawings’.

Any object can be placed on photographic paper and exposed to light. However, transparent objects and objects with interesting silhouettes are more effective.

WeavingPainting with developer

SolarisationStencilling

Photogram Artists

Lazlo Maholy-Nagy

Lotte Jacobi

Man Ray

Christian Shad

Most photograms made in the 1800s were documentary experiments and it wasn’t until the Modernist movement in the 20th Century that artists started to make photograms as art works focusing on form, movement, space. Many of these artists were part of the Bauhaus movement in Germany.