Photographic Exhibition - V & A Museum

Whilst in London we also visited the Victoria & Albert Museum which houses a permanent Photographic Exhibition detailing the history of photography, as well as an exhibition running up to 20 Feb titled, Shadow Catchers, Camera-less Photography.

This was a series of prints ranging from A2 up to lifesize of various subjects, made directly on to light sensitive photographic paper, and then fixed in the normal manner, as well as video footage of the artists at work.

The portraits were the most striking although due to the nature of the medium these were in silhouette.

Interesting patterns were formed with organic material, rocks, crystals, clothing, the list was almost endless.

Unfortunately, photography  in the exhibition, was not allowed.

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.^[1]
Artistic cameraless photography, as the technique producing photograms is usually known, is perhaps most prominently associated with Man Ray and his exploration of rayographs. Others who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy, Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and even Pablo Picasso.^[2] Varieties of the technique have also been used for scientific and other purposes.