Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the Shadow Catchers exhibition at the V&A and, no exaggeration, it utterly blew me away.

The exhibition covers the work of five artists that capture images, using different methods, without using a camera. Please have a look at the website if you get a chance, I found the images so evocative. I loved the fact that they were beyond conventional photography and blurred the boundaries between realities and fantasies. It's just a beautiful collection of work.

When I was in Brighton last week (I'd popped in to a shop to ask for some advice about my temperamental Polaroid camera). I was delighted to find this 'Sunography' pack - a pack of photosensitive paper, similar in principle to the techniques used by some of the Shadow Catcher artists. I had to get it.

The principle is simple, when exposed to bright sunlight any image on the paper is capture. I place a few sheets out in sunshine to experiment:

On the washing line

In a bush

And on the roof of the Aussie's car (I found this beautiful shell on Brighton beach but that's not a British native species is it?)

And you leave your paper to expose for about fifteen minutes (depending on the strength of the sunshine)

Once your image has been exposed you rinse you photographic paper until the water runs clear (sorry I haven't a picture of this stage but a girl only has two hands).

And then you just let them air dry (sharing the washing line with a vintage jumper is optional).

I am pleased with some of the results. I like the fact you can see the faint outline of the bush in the one on the left, a very distinct clothes peg on the one for the middle and the shell came out well on the one that was on the car roof.

I have a few more sheets that I will save for another sunny day now I have a better idea how effective different things are on it but I am so pleased to have had the chance to try it out.

There you go, I'm not sure it'll end up in the V&A just yet but I rather pleased with my very own shadow catching camera-less photography.