DIY 16mm Contact Printing & Photogram Workshop
WITH LINDSAY MCINTYRE
Duration: 4 Hours
Cost: $50 (materials included)
Skill Level: All welcome (No prior darkroom experience required)
Discover the hands-on, creative, iterative possibilities of contact printing. You will learn how to make black-and-white photograms (rayograms), use a tabletop 16mm contact printer, and hand-process B&W film as negative and positive. You'll experience the complete tactile DIY process and see your finished creation come to life projected on the wall. With no camera and very few resources, you’ll have everything you really need to make a film – all you need is a little creativity and commitment.
What we'll do
Photograms / Rayograms: Expose physical objects directly onto light-sensitive 16mm stock (Bring your own unique materials or use those provided).
Tabletop contact printing: Manipulate found footage and layer images directly onto raw stock using a contact printer. (bring your own source negatives or found footage, if desired)
Darkroom Hand-Processing: Step-by-step hand development with negative and positive B&W film chemistry.
Other methods of contact printing: learn about other ways you can adapt tools to make DIY contact printing more accessible.
Project your results! We will make loops of all of our experiments and watch our work on screen right away.
What to Bring
All film stock, chemicals, and equipment are provided but participants are encouraged to bring small, textured, or semi-transparent objects to place on the film.
Note: Each frame is under 16mm wide, so smaller items are most effective.
Small hardware & tiny objects (multiples): paperclips, staples, washers, screws, pins, dimes, crystals, chains, string, wire, pasta, etc.
Natural elements: leaf skeletons, grass, feathers, hair, sand, etc.
Textiles & patterns: Very loose-weave fabrics like burlap, lace, doilies, fruit bags, or small cutouts of textured paper.
Found transparencies: Found footage, 16mm film, handcrafted film strips, slides, microfiche, S8 film.