Experimental Photography Techniques Workshop

Lumen Prints and Phytograms are two forms of alternative photography images that can be made with light-sensitive photographic paper. These analogue images can be made without a camera or darkroom by placing different kinds of materials directly onto the paper and exposing them to light. The paper can be further manipulated by treating it with different plant-based solutions.

Images can have unpredictable visual outcomes and be made for artistic expression or as a novel way to represent aspects of our surroundings such as boundaries, scale, seasonal variation, and degradation.

These two techniques both demonstrate what was once there through recording

not only light but the chemical life of a variety of materials

Objectives:
● To introduce participants to the basic properties of silver-based

photographic materials.

● To explore the interplay of organic chemistry, light, and environment in

image formation.

● To foster collaborative and reflective approaches to image-making

through a shared process.

Participants leave with:

– A series of experimental, individual or collaborative prints.

– Knowledge of low-toxicity and plant-based photochemical methods.

– Strategies for working with film and photo materials in bioregionally sensitive

and low-resource ways.