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photogram

photogram

1 9.1
An image you make by placing objects directly on light-sensitive paper without a camera
  • noun
  • /ˈfoʊtəˌɡræm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fotograma
  • The wholly abstract photogram, in its manipulation of the reflection and absorption of light

Examples

  • The artist's use of the techniques of multiple exposure, photogram, and contact printing results in a blurry temporal collapse in which shots taken at different times are now made to coinhabit the same image.

    Academic text (2000)
  • I will take photograms of your bioelectric activity as Evey leaves your body forever.

  • You can tell him all about thejourney, and... you can even send him a photogram.

  • This photogram was taken at the magnetic North Pole... in Svalbard... kingdom of the ice bears.

  • I may have ripped The Lesbian Love Ethic out of this book to use in a photogram collaboration with Anna.

    Academic text (2012)
  • The creation of the Journal was not without controversy, and it was attacked in the Photogram newsletter: "Its destiny is obscured by the fact that those behind it seem to have no clear-cut ideas of its purpose and functions."

    Academic text (2009)
  • Lissitzky had ample opportunity to practice the production of such disorienting effects, as an entire series of photograms to be used as Pelikan carbon-paper ads makes evident.

    Academic text (2000)
  • You Don't Need A Camera by Onas C. Scandrette, FPSA Creating photograms—equipment, materials, and how-to No. 13.

    Academic text (1993)
  • The strangeness of the image, and thus its powerful hold on the viewer as a potential customer, is bound up with the tension between mechanical reproduction (the mass-produced Pelikan logo, the photogram technique itself) and traditional writing (manual instrument, writing fluid).

    Academic text (2000)
  • The artist created a stunning photogram by placing leaves on light-sensitive paper and exposing it to sunlight.

Surface Forms

photogram singular
photograms plural

Morphology

photogram = photo + gram

The word is built from classical elements meaning roughly 'light/photo' and 'record/image', but the specific camera-less photographic technique is not fully predictable for an average learner.

Etymology

Photogram comes from photo meaning 'light' and -gram meaning 'drawing' or 'something written', as in telegram. So a photogram is like a 'light drawing' made by placing objects on photo paper and letting light hit it, without using a camera.