Photograms

I was working in the darkroom on some prints for an assignment, and suddenly thought of Man Rays photograms. I had done photograms before so knew how to. I was just messing around in the following images, they have been scanned in so sorry for the quality. They look much better as originals because the paper is shiny, and this really shows the black and white contrast.

I love photograms, and am hoping to do loads more of them! Maybe using different objects to get new effects. I will try using see-thru objects, and different materials to see what happens. I will experiment changing the darkroom paper too, glossy and matt.

An example of Man Ray’s work, I was influenced by his photograms for my own.

Man Ray

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his Photograms, which he renamed “rayographs” after himself.

Man Ray has influenced my work, in two ways experiments and darkroom techniques. I have tried solarisation and photo-grams. I really like Man Ray’s images, he inspires me to learn more in the darkroom and the further my techniques. Like Ansel Adams, he make me want to be a better darkroom photographer.