Kaleidoscope Photograms
For the main part of Project 1, I used flowers and leaves to make a black and white photogram which I would turn into a kaleidoscope. In order to do that, I made a 5 by 7 photogram. I started by putting bubble wrap in the negative carrier in the enlarger. I set the aperture to 11 and adjusted the focus knob to make the bubble wrap clear. I set the timer for 6 seconds and then made sure the light was off. I took out my paper and I organized the flowers and leaves close to the edges which I knew would later form a design then I put heavy glass on top of the paper. I exposed the paper then developed it and let it dry.
After the original photogram dried, I made a tone reversal of it, leaving the settings the same on the enlarger. I put the blank unexposed paper on the bottom with the emulsion side up and then the already exposed design face down on that paper. Then developed that 5 by 7 paper so I had half of the design. I then made another tone reversal of the original image and then a tone reversal of the tone reversal.
I let these four photograms dry and then I trimmed all of the uneven edges off and set them up in a square which formed a kaleidoscope design. Lastly I matted the four images.
For my second part of Project 1, I did a different version of illuminated negatives which are shown in my previous post, but I used a scanner instead of a color enlarger. I took an arrangement of flowers and set acetate on the scanner. I arranged the flowers on top of the acetate and covered them with a black photography bag. I scanned the images then edited them digitally. I increased the blacks and saturation in the flowers. I then I printed the pictures. I cut them out and then mounted them. I really liked the way the illuminated negatives looked and so this was a good substitute for not having a color enlarger.
