Fixed shadows of threedimensional objects on lightsensitive material
• The photogram is the immediate result of a constellation of
light, three-dimensional object and photosensitive material.
Hereby the object is in partial contact with, or in a relative
proximity to, the photosensitive material. In other words, there
is no optical system between object and photosensitive
surface. Processes of light-bending or refraction are at best
caused by the objects themselves.
All two-dimensional electromagnetic receptors function
theoretically as photosensitive material. A source of light can
be used as well as invisible rays such as microwaves, infrared
light or x-rays.
• Conceptually, the photogram as a kind of light imprint differs
fundamentally from lens-based photography. By its immediacy,
its quality as index caused by the potential contact and the
reversion of distance relationships, the photogram relates more
to imprint techniques and shadow phenomena.
• Or to make it short: The photogram is a highly differentiated
shadow picture fixed directly on a light sensitive surface.
(Information from www.photogram.org)
• Conceptually there is a controversy as to
whether the photogram is merely an
experimental camera-less branch of
photography, or if it constitutes its own
medium.
• The result differs greatly from a photographic
image made with a camera.
• The photogram technique is at least as old as
the existence of photosensitive surfaces. (app.
1802)
(Information from www.photogram.org)
ANONYMOUS, PORTRAIT OF ANNA ATKINS,
ALBUMEN PRINT, 1861.
COLLECTION: MAJOR RICHARD W.
EDMEADES.
EQUISETUM SYLVATICUM. FROM: CYANOTYPES
OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN FERNS. CIRCA, 1850.
COLLECTION: J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM
• The real breakthrough for the photogram
constitutes the discovery of x-rays by Conrad
Röntgen.
• In the arts, the photogram was explored rather
late, after the first World War.
• The name “photogram” was introduced and
established by László Moholy-Nagy in 1925.
With respect to Christian Schad and Man Ray
who used the technique before Moholy-Nagy,
sometimes the technique is also called
“schadography” or “rayograph”.
(Information from www.photogram.org)
•
•
•
Mapping the temporal balance between water and air in the form of unique
bubbles - which emerge as a result of dynamic systems that do not follow
linear and hierarchal patterns of organizational behavior - Fried charts the
fundamental economy of networks in nature. In varying chromatic tones,
Fried depicts strictly non-biological membranes that evoke a strong
resemblance to primordial living cells or biotech test-tube creations, and
remind us of just how strong yet corruptible the architecture of life is.
Fried creates large gaseous vesicles in a totally darkened room using
infrared goggles, and at the decisive moment, photograms them onto
grainless color sheet-film . Specifically, he uses the shadows of objects –
even transparent things - to make an image on photosensitive material
using only light and the light sensitive material. No camera, no Lens. What
we see in his enlarged c-prints are the latent shadows and spectral
aberrations of these transparent forms.
The title refers to Lucy (the early hominid Mother), to us (the Myth), and to
Dolly-the-sheep (the Missing Link) in a dialogue that seeks orientation in a
world in which man has moved from controlling the environment to the
inescapable urge to invent our predecessors. Fried takes us on a
biomorphical journey from the Cambrian sea to the artificial womb.
CONTEMPORARY
PHOTOGRAMS
CONSIDER YOUR
CONTENT & LAYOUT…
SINGLE OBJECT
COMPOSITIONS
COLLECTIONS AS
COMPOSITIONS
OTHER CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
• You can easily create your own
photogram by placing an object on a
photo-sensitive surface (like photo
paper) inside a dark room. The paper is
then briefly exposed to light and later
developed.