Photograms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An image created without a camera by placing objects directly on light-sensitive material during exposure
2. A form of photography that relies on direct contact with light-sensitive paper rather than using a lens or camera
3. A visual representation formed by the interplay of light and shadow from objects placed on a photosensitive surface, capturing their outlines and textures

Etymology: "Photogram" is built from two Greek elements: "phōs" (genitive "phōtos"), meaning light, and "gramma," meaning something drawn or written. The literal sense is a light-drawing. The "-gram" ending is the same one in "telegram" and "diagram," so the word describes an image made by a deliberate act of drawing rather than by a machine. The method reverses the usual logic of photography. A camera uses a lens to focus light from a scene onto a sensitive surface, but here the object itself is laid on light-sensitive paper and exposed to light. Wherever light reaches the paper it darkens, and wherever the object blocks it, the paper stays pale, so the object's outline and shadows are recorded at actual size. Early experimenters such as William Henry Fox Talbot made images this way, and the Dada artist Man Ray later used the technique and called his versions "rayographs."

Synonyms: photo prints, light prints