Photogram of ME94 Lamp by Marianne Brandt
Bauhaus archive photograms | 2025
Series of photograms produced using glass objects from the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation’s Archive.
Photograms can be made by exposing photographic paper to different durations and intensities of light. They are generally produced in a darkroom, where a quick burst of artificial light from an intense source, such as a photographic enlarger or flash, is used to fix a silhouette onto photographic paper.
Following the rich history of experiments in cameraless photography at the Bauhaus, these photograms were made from different historical glass objects from the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation's Bauforschungsarchiv (Building Research Archive). The collection ranges from classic lamp designs found throughout the Bauhaus buildings, glass tiles and bricks used in the Torten estate in Dessau, to old incandescent bulbs collected over the years. What is really interesting about rendering these objects as photograms is that they reveal traces of wear and production normally transparent to the naked eye.
Credits:
Photograms by Benton Ching and Sofia Nercasseau-Gibson
Special thanks to Peter Biewer, keeper of the Bauforschungsarchiv
Exhibited at After Modern Brightness: Ecologies of Light, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
