Rayograph

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A photographic print created by laying objects directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposing it without a camera, producing a silhouette or shadow image
2. An image produced by arranging items on photographic paper and using light to create their outline, bypassing the need for a conventional camera
3. A picture formed by placing objects on unexposed photographic material and then illuminating it to capture their form as a shadow

Etymology: The name was coined by the American modernist artist Man Ray (1890–1976), who built it from his own name. Man Ray took the first half from "Ray" and joined it to "-graph," the classic combining element for "writing" or "drawing," with a connecting "-o-" between them. The result describes a photograph made without a camera, in which objects are laid directly on light-sensitive paper and exposed to light. The image that appears is a shadowy silhouette, so the name works as a self-portrait in a sense: an artist's own name carried into a technique he made famous.

Synonyms: photogram