A photogram is defined as a photographic image created without a camera. In this process objects are placed directly onto photographic paper, which is then exposed to light. The areas of the paper that are blocked by the objects therefore receive little or no light. These areas appear white, while the areas that are exposed to light appear grey or black. The shade of grey depends on how much light the paper has received.
The Invention of Photograms
This process was discovered by William Henry Fox Talbot, an English inventor who was born in Dorset in 1800. Talbot, frustrated by his failed attempts to sketch scenery while at Lake Como in Italy in 1833, began work on inventing a device that could produce sketches automatically. An idea inspired by an optical device that was used to project images of its surroundings called the camera obscura, as well as his interest in light and chemistry. Talbot began by placing pressed leaves on paper that he had sensitised using salt and silver nitrate, which he then placed in the sun. This resulted in a white silhouette of the object(s) used and a darkened background. Talbot named this process photogenic drawing and presented it to the Royal Society in 1839.
Above on the right is a photograph of Talbot, and on the left an image he captured through photogenic drawing.