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Flashlight and Salt: Photogram on 8” x 10” Film, 2006

Photograms

Some of the earliest photographic works ever made are photograms. The charm of this technique, requiring no camera or lens, comes largely from how simply a photogram image can be made. Light is shone onto photographic paper or film with objects in the way, casting deep and translucent shadows. In my recent photograms, I have exposed large-format film (8”X10” and 20”x 24”). Light and the resulting shadows of objects near and touching the film are what produce the final image. In some cases, the object is water splashed directly on the film’s surface. In others, I have projected the shadows of still-lives that I constructed in front of the film. I hope that these elemental, conjured-up, camera-less images suggest the feeling of light, matter, volume, and gravity in seemingly real space.