Photograms

These two images were the first two images that I developed in the dark room! The objective of this project was to create two photograms in the dark room, first creating the image and then developing the photo and looking at the outcome. The first image that I created is the one on the top, with the drawing model and the fan brush. To create this image I first adjusted the focus and aperture of the enlarger, and then put my light sensitive paper into place. Then, I used the model and the fan brush to create an image above the light sensitive paper. I wanted it to look like a little artist holding a large paintbrush, while still making the cropping and composition interesting. Then, I turned on the enlarge and exposed the paper for 5 seconds, with the aperture turned up all the way. This made it so that the objects covered the paper and only their outline / negative space would turn dark when developed. Afterwards I went through the developing process, with the developer and fix and stop and rinsing. I did the same thing with the second photo, but decided to go with more of a beach theme using starfish, shells, and steel wool to look like grass or seaweed maybe.

I really liked this process and found it really interesting because I've never developed images like this before. I also really like the way the images came out, like negative space drawings that have very stark contrast. It was pretty cool, and a little annoying, learning how to work the enlarger and I think I've already found the one that I prefer to use. One thing that I found interesting about this process in my final image was some of the chemicals that stayed on my image. In both of my pictures there are some wavy, mismatchy lines at the top corners, which I think may have something to do with how long I left them in some chemicals and how well they rinsed. However, I definitely learned how to fix some mistakes for next time!