Analogue
Photograms
2022-present

A photogram is essentially a camera-less photograph that uses only light, objects and light sensitive paper. It is a darkroom process that became popular at the turn of the century as photography was taking off as a new and wondrous art form. It was also made popular by the art movements of Dada and Surrealism, and artists such as ManRay began making huge bodies of work using the technique, calling his pieces ‘rayographs’.

As we march headlong into an AI future I find myself becoming more enamoured by processes of the past. I love disappearing into the theatre of my darkroom, using found natural objects and the alchemy of light, with a good measure of the unknown, to create images that to a certain extent, have created themselves. Each of them so utterly unique and unrepeatable relying on the type of paper you use, the opaqueness and composition of the objects that obscure the light and the amount of time you expose the paper. All of these elements combine in any number of random configurations to create pieces that arrive, as if by magic, before your eyes.