A-Z summer project // PHOTOGRAMS cameraless photography

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.^[1]

Artistic cameraless photography, as the technique producing photograms is usually known, is perhaps most prominently associated with Man Ray and his exploration of rayographs. Others who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy,Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and even Pablo Picasso.^[2] Varieties of the technique have also been used for scientific and other purposes