Project 1 - Research

Color Bang
"I have always been fascinated by the planets and stars, looking through telescopes and wondering what these far off places might look like. With this series I have tried to create imaginary solar systems and super novas using different materials, and fireworks for my light source to make one-of-a-kind camera less images directly onto color and black and white photographic paper. Like the darkness in outer space, I work in the dark to create images that mimic the interstellar places that I always dreamed about going to as a kid." - Ross Sonnenberg
The "Color Bang" series by Ross Sonnenberg was very surprising to me at first. I had never seen a photogram with such an intense variety of color. Most of the examples shown in class were impressive, but they focused more on interesting shapes rather than vibrant colors. This photo is exactly the opposite. Colors splash across the image, fading in and out of each other in a beautiful mess. This is one of the main factors that made his work stand out to me. The other interesting part about his work methods he uses to create it. He uses fireworks as his light source by lighting them on top of the paper, and seeing what happens. On this particular photo burn marks can be seen from the firework shooting off of the paper. The burns are interesting to me because they tell the viewer a story about how the photogram came to be. Without the burn the photo would just look like a tie-dyed shirt, but the end result winds up being so much more than that.

"Lily and Egg" by György Kepes is a beautiful photogram for the opposite reasons. The shapes are incredibly defined. Many photograms have blurriness, but the silhouette of the lily is incredibly sharp around all of the edges. The egg also looks quite good, but it is not nearly as impressive as the lily at the center of the photo. The branching out leaves and the flower itself are super sharp, which creates a beautiful focal point for the image. The gray color palette works extremely well for this image because of the simple yet detailed shapes of the objects shown. 

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