Graphics: Photograms

In the afternoon of my first day in Graphics, I was shown around the photography dark room and as such given a full introduction into said room. This included going over the basic health and safety rules such as the normal:

Don't Eat, No phones, Coats and bags to be stored safety out of reach to prevent tripping, Always wash hands after working with chemicals, Chemicals to be prepared by staff online, not to crowd the darkroom, a staff member must always be present, throw away rubbish and to use tongs when moving paper between trays.

After such I was shown how to create photograms just using objects the light projector and photographic paper. This quickly peeked my interest, as having a keen hobby in photography but mainly digital. Working in the realms of film development made me rather giddy and as such I quickly produced 3 photograms on the light projectors and then took them over to the developing tray. That minute of just standing there watching the image appear on the photographic paper is something else and instantly made me want to keep making more but alas time restraints. So after a minutes I moved the images from the Development chemicals to the stop baths and then to the fixing chemical for another 5 minutes and finally to the wash bath where they sat for 20 minutes to remove any of the excess chemicals. 

I can see this process getting very mechanical when working on a large film roll. Constantly walking back and forth seeing your images come to life from film. As such I cannot wait to get the chance to try it again.

These were the 3 photograms I ended up making. For the photos themselves I added on different items to stop the light from hitting the photographic paper in areas to create images and shapes. As such depending on the thickness/opacity of the item some light may or may not get threw. For example the first 2 piece I picked were a thistle type flower which has a lot of sharp little bristles coming off it which the light picked up really nicely. Secondly I chose a thick metal chain for this I knew the light wouldn't pass threw it and as such I overlapped the chain and try to place it in an interesting way which I feel came across in the photo.
Lastly the photo on the left, I tried multiple thinner and more organic objects, such as leaves and a shell but then I decided I wanted this piece to have a lot of over lapping aspects so I added on some Iron wool and bubble wrap. You may notice there is a large area in which there is just black space below the iron wool. This is where the bubble wrap was but as its a very clear material the light was let through easily and as such I should have left it in the developing chemical for a shorter time to have it show up. However you can see in the middle of the image part of the iron wool is blurred out where the bubble wrap was overlapping the top of it. I like this effect as it show the experimentation of the piece. Overall I really enjoyed making these photograms and cannot wait to give it another go.