The photogram is the most direct form of photography — an image made without a camera, by placing objects directly on a sheet of light-sensitive material and exposing it to light. Where objects block the light, the paper remains unexposed (white on a silver gelatin print, or the paper colour on an alternative process print). Where light reaches the paper, the material darkens. The result is a shadowgraph — a silhouette record of the objects, rendered as light shapes on a dark ground. The photogram is as old as photography itself: William Henry Fox Talbot's earliest photographic experiments in the 1830s were photograms of leaves, lace, and botanical specimens laid on sensitised paper in sunlight. In the twentieth century, the photogram was elevated to a major art form by Man Ray (who called his photograms "Rayographs"), László Moholy-Nagy, and Christian Schad ("Schadographs"). This guide covers the history, technique, creative possibilities, and artistic legacy of the photogram.
Talbot's Photogenic Drawings
Talbot's "photogenic drawings" of 1834-1839 were contact photograms: botanical specimens, pieces of lace, and flat objects placed on silver chloride paper and exposed in sunlight. The resulting images were negative — white shapes on a darkened ground. These were the earliest photographs on paper and the most direct demonstration of photography's fundamental principle: light alters a chemical substance, and objects that block light leave a record of their presence. Talbot was fascinated by the detail captured in these images — the veins of a leaf, the weave of fabric — details that were invisible to casual observation but revealed by the unblinking precision of light acting on chemistry.
The Avant-Garde Photogram
In the 1920s, the photogram was rediscovered as a powerful artistic tool by the avant-garde. Man Ray, working in Paris, began creating photograms (which he renamed "Rayographs") by arranging objects — keys, springs, combs, hands, glass — on photographic paper in the darkroom and exposing them to light. The results were mysterious, dreamlike images in which familiar objects were transformed into luminous, floating forms against a dark ground. Moholy-Nagy, at the Bauhaus, explored the photogram as a tool for investigating light, transparency, and spatial relationships — placing transparent and translucent objects on the paper to create complex gradations of tone and overlapping forms. Christian Schad made "Schadographs" using torn paper, thread, and flat objects. Together, these artists established the photogram as a legitimate and powerful art medium.
Technique: Darkroom Photograms
In the darkroom, work under safelight. Place a sheet of photographic enlarging paper (silver gelatin DOP) emulsion-side up on the enlarger baseboard or a flat surface. Arrange objects on the paper. Expose by turning on the enlarger light (with no negative in the carrier) or by briefly switching on a white light. The duration and intensity of the exposure determine the overall density of the background. After exposure, develop, stop, fix, and wash the paper as for any darkroom print. Opaque objects produce white silhouettes; translucent objects produce grey tones; transparent objects may produce very little shadow at all. The distance between the object and the paper, the angle and collimation of the light, and the three-dimensionality of the objects all affect the sharpness and character of the shadows.
Technique: Alternative Process Photograms
Photograms can be made with any photosensitive material — cyanotype, Van Dyke brown, platinum-palladium, gum bichromate, salt print, or any other hand-coated process. For cyanotype photograms, coat paper with cyanotype sensitiser, dry, place objects on the coated paper, and expose in sunlight or UV light. Where the objects block light, the paper remains the colour of the unexposed sensitiser (yellow for cyanotype); where light reaches the paper, the characteristic blue (or other process colour) develops. These alternative-process photograms are often strikingly beautiful — the handmade quality of the coating combined with the direct, cameraless image gives the print a raw, elemental power.
Creative Possibilities
The photogram is limited only by the imagination of the maker. Objects can be moved during exposure, creating multiple overlapping shadows and ghostly traces. Multiple exposures with different object arrangements can build up complex, layered compositions. Liquids, smoke, sprays, and fog can be placed or projected over the paper. Light can be directed from different angles, projected through lenses or prisms, or filtered through coloured gels. The photogram can be combined with camerawork — exposing a negative image from the enlarger and then adding photogram objects on top. The possibilities are genuinely infinite, and the directness of the process — no camera, no lens, no distance between object and image — gives photograms an immediacy and physicality that camera-made images cannot match.
Contemporary Photogram Practice
The photogram remains a vital art form. Contemporary photographers such as Adam Fuss, Susan Derges, Floris Neusüss, and Pierre Cordier have explored the photogram on monumental scales and with extraordinary technical and conceptual sophistication. Fuss has created life-sized photograms of babies in water, snakes, and other subjects using colour photographic paper and careful lighting. Derges has made river-bed photograms by submerging large sheets of photographic paper in streams at night and exposing them with flash. The photogram continues to be a medium for exploring the most fundamental questions of photography: what is light? what is an image? what is the relationship between an object and its representation?
The photogram — no camera, no lens, just objects, light, and paper.
Photography at its most elemental: the shadow as image. See the portfolio.
