For the second portion of our alternative processes assignment, I decided to make a photogram. A photogram is made by placing different objects on top of a piece of photo paper and using an enlarger to expose the paper. The result is that the uncovered parts of the paper turn black and the parts of the paper that were covered with objects are unexposed or partially unexposed. I thought that this process was pretty easy in theory but also sort of difficult because it required me to find ways to make all these different textures and objects cohesive and meaningful, as opposed to just being a bunch of shapes on a page. Here is what I ended up with :
The theme that I was trying to represent with this is the chaos that surrounds human life and how we interpret and respond to it. I cut out a stencil of the human body that showed (or attempted to show) the brain and the nervous system and placed it right in the middle of the page, making it the focal point of the image. I used several objects of varying textures and thicknesses to surround the body and create different patterns and values all around it. Some of the objects I used were copper wire, pillow stuffing, dead leaves and clear plastic, among other things. I waved the plastic over different areas of the image while exposing the paper for 10 seconds to create different tonal values in the background, instead of having it be all black. Once this was all done I put the photo paper through the developer, stop and fix, and the exposed parts of the photo became black or gray while the covered parts stayed white.
I think that this turned out pretty cool. I think that the wire did a pretty good job of representing the feeling of chaos that I was going for, and the way that the body looks like it is just drifting in the midst of everything else. Sometimes this is the way I feel in my life, but all in all I think things are pretty good :)
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