CHAPTER 8

Doin’ it in the Dark

Cameraless filmmaking/darkroom printing

This chapter is about making photochemical films without cameras, or at least mostly without cameras. Back in the 1920s artist Man Ray first had the idea to put objects on top of photo paper and then expose that paper to light. He called these “ray-o-grams” and it wasn’t long before he experimented with doing this on motion picture film as well. You can see the results of such efforts in his films La Retour à la Raison (1923) and Emak Bakia (1926), both available online at www.ubu.com/film/ray.html.

Such efforts require access to film chemistry, a dark room and patience as the work is rather painstaking and involves a lot of trial and error. Needless to say, it didn’t ...

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