Some time ago, my partner and I ran a series of
photography workshops for a group of friends and neighbours with
learning difficulties. It was a profoundly rewarding experience;
their interest was intense and emotionally connected. Though some of
them had difficulties with managing anger, they were consistent in
their attention to producing images of gentle subtlety.
One of the sessions was spent on photograms:
one off monoprint images made by exposing photographic emulsions directly to light
whilst partially protected by shadows. Various artists have explored
this technique, including Virna
Haffir (who simply called them photograms), Man
Ray* (who, with typical egotism, dubbed them†
“Rayograms”) and Christian
Schad (who didn't call them anything, but whose variant is often
known as a “Schadograph”). Our friends took the process, and the
opportunity to exercise complete control over their vision, to their
hearts.
I've recently found copies of some prints from that session. The one below,
lovingly made by Reggie using a found piece of rubbish, is an
example. (As always, click it for a larger view.)
* An
exhibition of Man Ray's portrait (not photogram) work opens on
Feb 7th at London's National Portrait Gallery.
† though the popular belief that he invented them is
false; it has its roots nearly two centuries earlier.
2 comments:
Tell Reggie Geoffrey like sit, very much.
Fascinatingly beautiful. I'd call that piece "Alchemy--Garbage to Gold".
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