Found Photograms

The 51 unique photographs in this book are composed of found objects, intentionally arranged for each of individual print to have a thematic meaning. I craft a whole narrative that informs what objects are in the image, where they are placed, and how they fill the space. Each one is its own little world!
I initially wanted to get really good at creating my little visual stories, so good that when someone sees the image they can actually read my narrative perfectly. Though I actually found that leaning into the abstract, and leaving room for interpretation was far more interesting. Each print becomes a little puzzle to put together, and everyone puts it together their own way :)
I encourage you to use the object relationships and themes you see to connect all the dots, create your own story that puts together all the pieces provided in each print!
Photograms are a simple photographic process that allows the artist to “build up” an image using any set of objects that fits on the page, by essentially capturing their shadows. Objects are placed on light sensitive paper and exposed to light via a darkroom enlarger, creating highly detailed silhouettes. The photograms in this book were inverted in the darkroom, making the background white and allowing for both “dark” and “light” objects to occupy the same image.
Learn more about this process here!
To me, found objects means anything that you encounter in life that’s interesting enough to pick up. This often means picking through garbage or finding stuff on the street, keeping the interesting trinkets, textures, and little unknown bits. But it also means going to Goodwill and buying the weirdest stuff, asking my sister to borrow her necklace, or ripping into a friend’s old couch to salvage the springs. By the end of the project I had 4 of those giant contractor bags full of all sorts of random junk. It seriously was a problem to find space in my college apartment for this stuff, I was the problematic roommate here for sure.
Also, you’d be surprised how many earrings you can find on the street if you know where to look.
I’s for sale now, and it’s super rad I promise! Click here to check it out :)
p.s. I’ll sign it for you for free if you just ask (message me on etsy when you order <3)

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Grass, Painter's Coveralls, Nails

Broken tequila bottle, Spark plugs, Spark plug wire, Toy snake, Caution tape

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Knife, Lightbulb, Pen, Sawdust, Plastic cup, Lid, String

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Various stones, Dreamcatcher, Friendship bracelets, Necklace, Cotton

Hatchet, Frog window decoration, Baby mitten, Pin nails, Hand clapper toy, Finger hand, My hand

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Evergreen, Unknown metal, Christmas lights, Laundry scent booster, Plastic bag

Saw, Bullet casings, Hard drive bits, 6-Pack holder togetherer, Shipping airbags

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Rope, Lightbulb, Receipt, Caffeine blister pack, Mechanical pencil lead, Sticks, Leaves, Dice

Shells, Sugar, Netting, Starfish, Unknown plants

Plastic bag, Old bottles, Barbed wire

Pill bottle, Vodka mini bottle, Grass, Rock salt, Fabric, Paper

Remote control toy, Throttle cable, Wallet chain, Flour, Unknown metal rod

Feathers, Some lovely herbs, Foam

A lot of plastic packaging, Unknown metal bits/brackets

Graduated cylinder, Handcuff key, 35mm film, Polaroid emulsion lift failures, Beaker,

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Pen, Paper, Toy handcuffs, Rusty wire, Binder clip

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Scissors, Carpet mesh, Cardboard, Spools of thread, Metal pins, Unknown pointy tool thing?

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Almost Gone

Food Chemistry