Christian Schad
Christian Schad was a German photographer and artist born in 1894 and died 1982 . Schad was part of the Expressionism, Dada and New Objectivity moments. Schad had his own take on photograms, where he exposed detritus and other unusual objects onto light sensitive paper and left them to develop on his windowsill. His photograms are some of the first of their time to be intentional abstract. He used the carless photogram technique, where he placed random objects onto the paper. Schad preferred to use scraps and worn down materials in his photograms. I really like how Schad uses materials and objects that you wouldn't typically think of to create unusual yet interesting photograms.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian photographer and artist who was born in 1895. Nagy was part of the Bauhaus movement in the 1920s, where he was one of their most influential teachers. He used more every day objects in his photograms, an even used his hand in one. Between 1922 to 1943, Nagy explored the 'aesthetic possibilities of the photogram' and how light can be used to produce art. He made every day objects appear ghostly and mysterious, by using layering techniques. One of Nagy's most famous work can be seen bellow on the left. He made this photogram by placing objects such as a paint brush and his hand over photosensitized paper and then exposing it to light.
Man Ray
Man Ray was an American visual Artis and named his photograms 'rayographs' after himself. Ray used random items such as coils of wire and film in his work. Ray was one of the pioneers in this technique. Ray exposed the paper for around 6 seconds under the enlarger and exposed the paper multiple times do give a layer effect. Ray liked how photograms were in black and white as it left room for imagination to the views and also using different objects with unusual shapes. He used random objects to make the viewer question what they are looking at and look closer into his work to figure out what the objects are.
My experiments
I experimented whilst making my own photograms inspired by the artists above, exposing the paper for different times and apertures. I used objects that I had found in my pockets and bag. I used light sensitive paper and after some trial and error I found that exposing the paper for 7 seconds at a lower aperture gave the best results. My favourite picture is the one in the middle as it went very dark and the contrast between the black and white is strong, giving a clear outline of the objects.
Ilan Wolff
Ilan Wolff uses the camera obscura technique (pinhole camera), from cameras made from cans and boxes. He also made photograms, using light sensitive paper and chemicals to produce the black and white effect. Wolff said he prefferd this technique instead of digital as each picture is unique. I like Wollf's work in the way he angled the pictures to make the buildings appear warped and added with the black and white create an ominous effect.
Floris Neusüss
Floris Neususs is a German artist known for his photograms. His most famous which he named 'Nudograms' where he took life size photograms of nude women, that were directly on the light sensitive paper. Neususs said “Photograms don’t show us what’s beyond the visible, but they give us a hint of it”. He liked to explore scale and the realtionship between size and colour. His photograms stand out as the image is bold in contrast to the background and also because his pictures don't feature anything else to distract the eye.
Transparencies
The enlarger aperture I used was a range between 4 and 6. I exposed the paper for 3 seconds as I found after some trial and error that these times worked best. I used transparencies in these photograms that give a different effect. I also experemented with layering objects over transparencies to see what worked and looked best. I especially liked the effect the ruler and bubble wrap gave on top of the transparencies.
Final Piece
After my experiments on small pieces of photosensitive paper, I finally made two A4 size photograms as my end product.
Cyanotypes
We started by printing off two pictures, one of lines and the other lines in nature. We then edited them so that they were in black and white and also inverted the pictures. After we printed them on to acetate, to create
Lumen prints
Lumen prints are a way of creating a picture by exposing light sensitive paper to the sun. To make these we used light sensitive paper, flowers, plants and a picture frame. Started by laying the flowers down on the glass of the picture frame, to create a wonderful and pleasant composition. Then I placed the light sensitive paper over the flowers, and sealed it in to the picture frame. I left the picture frame in the widow cill for a week to develop. Once the week was over I removed the paper from the frame and brushed the flowers off to leave me with my final product. I used flowers as I like the effect the flowers made as you can see their unusual shapes and outlines. However overall I don't really like my final outcome as I didn't add enough flowers and leaves. Next time I will ad more of a verity to the flowers I chose.
|