Photograms are images that are created without a camera, instead with an enlarger, light sensitive paper and a selection of objects. They look best when transparent and translucent objects are used, as the most detail can be seen with these, and they also create interesting shadows. Opaque objects can also be used, but these create more of an outline and they generally tend just to show up as white after the photogram has been developed.
APERTURE - 'The diameter of the lens opening as a fraction of the focal length'. How much light is let in - The lower the number, the more light is let in. 1.4 is the setting that lets the highest amount of light out onto the paper.
THRESHOLD CONCEPT 2 - All photography is the capturing of light. This includes images created without using a camera, such as photograms.
FOCAL LENGTH - Focal length is the distance from the centre of the lens to the point of focus/subject of the photo.
M A K I N G P H O T O G R A M S
1. Check that your enlarger is on and check the aperture. Put the red light on in the room to ensure that you do not accidentally expose anything.
2. Take your light sensitive paper and ensure that you do not expose it to any white light, just red light in the darkroom, or no light. If the paper is exposed to normal light, it will turn the paper dark brown/black and then it will not be able to be used.
3. Ensure that the red filter is over the light on the enlarger.
4. Place your light sensitive paper onto the desk and then place your chosen objects on top. I put the aperture on 4 for my photograms and that was enough light to be able to capture detail. 5. Put your timer on to one, two or three seconds. This will be enough time for the light to hit the paper and capture the traces of the objects.
6. After this, ensure that you still keep the red lights on in the darkroom so that your photogram is not ruined.
7. Place the paper into the developer. Leave it in there for two minutes.
8. Then place your photogram into the stop, to prevent it from developing any further.
9. Your photo is then ready to be placed in the fix, to fix your image and to keep it in place.
10. Then take your photo out of this solution after a couple of minutes and rinse it under a cold tap. Leave it in the water for a minute and then it is ready to hang and dry. 11. Your photogram is now complete.
I D E A S B E H I N D M Y P H O T O G R A M S
To create both of these photograms I used some dried flowers, mesh, a plastic up, pins, newspaper, negatives and a glass perfume bottle. I thought quite hard about my composition and tried to make my objects look carefully placed, but as if they had landed in that position, natural looking. I wanted the objects to look as if they were an array of significant things that may have been kept by someone for their nostalgic value. These objects that may not seem to have any kind of meaning to the majority of people, but these seemingly worthless objects can have worth depending on the places they have been to and the memories attached to them. I wanted my photograms to look like the inside of a draw full of objects, or someone's messy bedside table. I wanted them to look quite personal and sensitive. I had taken inspiration from the work of Palash Krishna Mehrotra. He is a photographer who did a study in which he captured objects belonging to the deceased or vacant people who are not in our lives anymore. He did this to show how a small object only really holds great significance and meaning when the owner of it is no longer here. This is the same message that I was trying to portray through my photograms.
P A L A S H K R I S H N A M E H R O T R A
This is the photographer that I took inspiration from whilst making my photograms. These are two images from a series called 'Ghosts of Genocide' which is a collection of photos of small objects belonging to the deceased. This series highlights how the significance of an object is placed upon it when the owner is no longer around. Everything seems to have sentimental value after someone dies or leaves someone's life. We find it so hard to depart from these tiny things as we are still so attached to the person and all of their idiosyncrasies, that somehow seem to attach themselves to the objects left when they leave the person at death. This may be a reason as to why people find it so hard to throw away these types of objects. I find this concept rather interesting, yet sad and heartbreaking. This is my idea and theme for the experiments presented below.
E X P L O R I N G I D E A S W I T H D I F F E R E N T M E D I U M S
P H O T O G R A P H Y - Shot with a Canon DSLR
The photos below are an exploration of my own visual ideas using my Canon DSLR. I did a shoot designed to look like a bedside table, a grouping of objects that look as if they have just been left there by fault, as if they belong to a dead person and their lover cannot bear to part with these insignificant items as they now hold so much value due to the person missing. They were taken with great inspiration from Mehrotra, not for the visual or aesthetic side of things, but for the ideas and meaning that the images hold and portray. I decided to take the photos close up, to really capture the detail and to make them more personal, as the ideas behind them are rather sensitive. I also did this as the objects are the photos, other elements in the frame would divert the attention from the objects and take away from the meaning of the photos. As I wanted them to look very intimate and personal l did not include any patterns or contrasting colours in the background of the photos, I really wanted the objects to be the only focus so I shot my images on a plain, white, wooden surface with a white wall behind it. The reason behind the ring being the focus in numerous images was because I wanted it to appear as an engagement ring to portray my idea of a deceased lover. The placing of the objects was what I thought about the most, my composition needed to be rather natural looking to really try and make it appear as if they had just fallen there and been left for years. As if they had not been moved, touched or used for a long time, as if their partner could no longer even bear to pick up the items any more. I used some of my old rings that had rusted to add to that old and worn feel. Colouring and editing my images was also another very important part of creating my images. I decided to make them very warm with lots of yellow, pink and red tones to portray the idea of how human kind looks and the past through 'rose-tinted glasses'. This is why some of my images are literally rose tinted to show how we only see the good things in the past. For example, when we lose someone through a breakup, we never think about the bad parts of the relationship, we only ever think about the good as we grieve our loss. We romanticize the past. After we lose someone, we will only remember them for the good things that they were, which is a positive of course, as the good things about someone should be recognized and focused on more than the bad. I also chose to make my photos warm and hazy and I wanted to convey feelings of nostalgia, I wanted to visualise the feeling of nostalgia and capture it as something physical, such as a photograph. The sad yet warm and fuzzy feeling that I get whilst feeling nostalgic is something that I imagine to be filled with yellow and pink tones. There are two types of nostalgia for me, sad and happy. I wanted to attempt to combine both of these types within my images, but mainly focus on the happy nostalgia as the partner of the deceased looks back on the life that they shared with their now absent significant other. We only focus on the good parts after someone has gone.
P H O T O G R A M S The photograms created below were further experiments and explorations, inspired by the ideas of Mehrotra. I created these images bearing my previous ideas in mind. These photograms were created using objects that could be seen as rather sensitive and personal, such as a flower and a perfume bottle. I wanted the objects to appear as if they had been naturally placed and belonging to someone else. A sad and sensitive story is being told through these images, I wanted to portray grief and loneliness, as if someone has left another persons life and these small, previously meaningless objects are now immensely significant, as they are the only parts of a person that the grieving friend/relative has. Objects become a part of people, as they hold memories and sentimental value, a trace of the person who has gone. To create the blurred vision/double object effect on my second and third photo, I moved the paper slightly to create two shadows from one object. This was primarily and accident, but as I developed the photo I actually liked the effect very much so I decided to create it on purpose with my third photo, as I also believed that the ghostly effect related to my ideas and themes of death and loneliness. Another intentional decision that I made was with my first photo. The spilt liquid looking texture on parts of the photo was actually due to me not fulling rinsing the photogram and deciding to leave traces of chemicals on it to see what would happen. I actually liked the effect that it gave as I believe that it makes the photogram appear older and less clean, or it could be seen as spilt liquid, giving off that bedside table look that I previously mentioned above. I wanted my composition to look effortless and as if it hadn't been set up, yet sensitive and lightly placed. I did not want it to look to busy or heavy, but rather natural. I did this by using rather small and light objects, and sprinkling parts of the dried flower over the paper. The sparseness and smallness of the objects could also be seen as another portrayal of loneliness as they are so small and far apart, some objects look rather isolated like a lonley island on a map, slowly drifting far away from all of the other objects that surround it.