Land Photograms

I have been experimenting with the idea of camera-less photography i.e Photograms. After doing various research including going to the V&A exhibition "Shadow Catchers" (which was brilliant, I recommend people take a visit!!) I decided to try out the technique that Susan Derges uses, however unlike her, instead of suspending photographic paper into water and exposing it with a torch, I put my paper into dark woodlands at night.

I wanted to use photograms to capture The Land because I felt by literally capturing it in this primitive way, it became part of the land. I also liked the idea that was used to describe Derges's work, that her images 'allow nature to see itself' which I think is exactly what her river images do and I hope mine will capture this feeling too.

I set off at night to a very unlit, lonely woodland (with a friend of course... safety first people) armed with a torch and coloured photographic paper, I rummaged through the undergrowth to find beautiful plants that would create gorgeous shadows, along with trash that had been left behind, as I wanted to show beauty vs destruction, this idea that man is destroying the beautiful land (following on from my "Natural Dump" project). I dug my paper into the undergrowth, making sure at least some of the rubbish that was there was also on the paper (although this was difficult to do in the dark!) and exposed it with a basic torch for a millisecond to a second, as I need to experiment with what exposure times would be best especially as I had no idea if it would even work at all. The following day I took the paper into the colour darkroom and processed them and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The colours captured on the paper are not what I expected, pinks and purples, or oranges and yellows. They are all completely different and have managed to capture some of the lands texture and shadows, as well as the very substantial shapes where the rubbish was.

As a first try I am really pleased with the result, some are better than others whilst some didn't work at all but now I want to work on perfecting the images by getting the perfect exposure as well as really going into rough undergrowth to get much more shadows of nature and general texture that I do feel lack in my first attempts. But for now enjoy! I hope you like the abstract colours and shapes as much as I do!

(These are scans of the original prints, so the quality is a little dodgy where the paper is just white.)

Click on image to enlarge




I love the unusual colours in these two above, the vibrant pinks were a real surprise! I think the top image especially is very like abstract art, and I adore the strips of vibrant colours.


This image was extremely intriguing, it reminds me a little of a Jackson Pollock type painting. Again I love the strange colours captured, and although I do really love the simplicity of the image, it doesn't have any texture to it or shadows from nature and therefore doesn't capture the idea I want my project to tell.


These two above were less successful as they don't have much texture like the other two, yet the shapes from the rubbish is a lot more apparent. However I do love the vibrant orange in both, the one on the left was over exposed as apart from where strong shadows fell, everything else is black.

Second Shoot

These photograms were taken at a slightly earlier time in the evening and therefore I think it was a little too light for the paper, whilst it has still achieved a lovely textured effect, I think the paper may have been slightly fogged which accounts for them all being tinted red, instead of getting lots of varied colours like the first experimentations.