Photograms

I wanted to try making a photogram because I saw there could be two meanings to what you made, what you used and what you made it look like, and that intrigued me. For this project I decided to use some souvenirs I got on my trip to Hawaii this past summer, namely a lei, a conch shell, and turtle necklace. 

First, I just put all the materials on a test strip in no particular order and tried exposing them to various levels of light. I found out that with longer exposures you get more detail in the picture, showing the metaliciness of the necklace, the fabric texture of the lei, and the different layers of shell on the shell.

Test Strip #1- 20 second exposure

Since I then knew how the materials reacted to the light, I began thinking about what kind of design I could arrange them in. I wanted to do something that would emphasize the beachy origins of the materials. Finally, I decided on a beach scene with the shell as a sunset, the lei as some seaweed at the bottom of the ocean, and the turtle as if he was swimming through the scene.

So to do this, I first put the shell on the photo paper and covered the rest with the book. I exposed this for 15 seconds so that there would be a slight difference between the body of the shell and the spines, but not much. Then I took the shell off the paper and put the necklace and lei on. I covered the area where the shell had been with the book and exposed the rest for 20 seconds, to get more detail. I discovered that if I left the chain of the necklace to trail behind the turtle it looked a little like a slip stream of water trailing behind the turtle and the the clasp in front of the turtle looks like a fish it is chasing. I also discovered while experimenting that when water gets on the paper it leaves a little bubble mark. Since I was doing an underwater scene I decided to drip some water onto the paper on purpose to look like little bubbles.

Final Copy- 15 seconds for shell (sunset), 20 seconds for turtle necklace and lei ( swimming turtle and sea plants)

I feel that this project has been pretty successful. I really like the end product and I think it is adorable. I feel that I was relatively innovative in this project, with my idea and my water bubbles and even my double exposing, and the product came out looking good. I thoroughly enjoyed this project!