Man Ray - 'Rayograms'
Man Ray was an American painter and photographer, very well known for his photograms that he called 'Rayograms'. He was a maker of surrealism meaning his work often consisted of an abstract and fantasy style. In 1915, Ray began making abstract paintings in New York. He also started to experiment with objects to make sculptures. He moved to Paris in 1921 and he lived there for most of his life. Once moving to Paris, he participated in the Dada and Surrealist movements with paintings and photographs. Here are some of Ray's most famous 'Rayograms'. He used everyday objects when creating his photographs but his work was a representation of fantasy that put him at competition with avant garde photographers as well as caused him to be very famous with other photographers that followed what he did. As you can see from these photographs, the objects used are very basic but he has transformed them into abstractions of art.
Moholy Nagy
Moholy Nagy was a Hungarian Painter and Photographer that was shaped by Dadaism, Suprematism and most importantly, Constructivism. He believed in order to answer humanity's needs, artists should transform into designers through experimentation. He believed artists vision of the world' had to modernise due to the fact that the world was modernising. With the invention of the camera, artists had to experiment with vision. In all of Nagy's work, he showed his interest in the qualities of space, time and light and how these elements interact in a photograph. From these photographs, you can see how his experimentation has created constructivism through what seems like mechanical objects made into abstract forms of art.
My Dark Room Experiments - Photograms
Photograms are images created without using a camera by using light sensitive paper and different objects laying on top and exposing it to light. Through experimenting in the dark room, I made many mistakes as it was my first attempt however I am happy with the outcome of some of them.
If I were to do these experiments again then I would be weary of how much light I exposed to the paper and for how long I exposed it for, and I would make sure to leave the image in the developer for the right amount of time as well as leaving it in the fix for the right amount of time. This is so I make a photograph that has been properly made but still has elements of surprise with the fact that I am still experimenting.
If I were to do these experiments again then I would be weary of how much light I exposed to the paper and for how long I exposed it for, and I would make sure to leave the image in the developer for the right amount of time as well as leaving it in the fix for the right amount of time. This is so I make a photograph that has been properly made but still has elements of surprise with the fact that I am still experimenting.
Image 1 - The mistake I made with this not was not leaving it in the developer long enough. If I had left it in the developer for the right amount of time there would have been more contrast between the black and white and not just a variation of different shades of greys.
Image 2 - The mistake I made with this photograph is not leaving it in the fix chemical for long enough. This is the reason for the colouring of the photograph turning slightly brown and if I had left the photograph to fix for the right amount of time, then it would have been a sharp black and white colour. Although I made a mistake with this, I do like the fact that it has gone slightly discoloured as it gives an aged effect.
Image 3 - The final mistake I made with this photograph was either exposing too much light onto the light sensitive paper, or exposing the paper for too long. This meant that the photograph went very dark so you can hardly see the detail of the objects.
Chemigrams
Chemigrams are made by painting onto light-sensitive paper and exposing it to light, creating a photograph. I experimented with various liquids and this was my outcome:
In my first attempt, I used body butter cream and applied it to the light sensitive paper and then exposed it to light by standing by the window. I then developed it as you usually would with a camera-less photograph by putting it in the developer, stop and fix chemicals. With this attempt, I made the mistake of putting too much of the cream onto the paper. This is because after seeing the final outcome, the fact that there was so much liquid on it, it meant the layer was so thick that it was a complete blockage for any light to pass through and make more of an abstract effect than what I ended up with.
In my second attempt, I used yellow nail varnish and anti-bacterial spray. I was very happy with this outcome as I really wanted it to be abstract and almost messy looking and that is what I came out with. I exposed it to the light for less time than I did before which turned out really well as it did not go too dark. Although I am really happy with the outcome, I did not manage to remove the nail varnish so the colour stayed on the final photograph. It still looks abstract and unique however I wanted the picture to be black and white so you were able to see how the substances affected the exposing of light process.
In my third attempt, I used lip gloss. When exposing it to light, it already started to show colour so I decided to develop it earlier. I like the final product as you can see the colour of it even though I had wiped it off of the paper, however if I were to do this again, I would do a thinner layer of the lip gloss to show the fine detail of how it exposes to light and gets through the substance as I think because I used a lot, it became too much of a barrier for light to get through.
In my fourth attempt I used acetone. This did not work out well as in the final product, you could not see where the substance had been. The mistake I made was either exposing it to light for too long or leaving it in the developer for too long. I also think that the actual substance itself had an impact as I was weary of how long to expose it for and I developed it for the same amount of time as the others.
Finally, in my last attempt I used just anti-bacterial spray. I am again, very happy with the outcome of this photograph as I think antibacterial spray works really well as a substance for a chemigram. I really like the sharp contrast between the black and white and the fact that you can see how the paper exposed to light with a large amount of substance and also a small amount. The shape of it is also really interesting as it almost seems like it has moved when it was being exposed due to the foggy effect near the top.