Hands-on, camera-less photography workshop with artist Tom Godwin to create chemigrams and lumen prints.
Tom Godwin is running a hands-on photography workshop at Craft & Culture in Birmingham on Saturday 17 October, and the whole thing is camera-less. If you've ever wanted to make a photograph without actually using a camera, this is exactly that: you'll be working with chemigrams and lumen prints, two ways of making images that rely on chemistry and light rather than a lens.
Chemigrams are made by painting or drawing on photographic paper with resists — things like varnish or oil — and then running that paper through developer and fixer. The resists block the chemicals in some places and let them through in others, so you end up with an image that's as much about painting as it is about photography. Lumen prints are a different beast entirely: you place objects, like leaves or lace, directly onto light-sensitive paper and leave it in the sun. The UV light slowly burns the image into the paper over hours or days, and the result is a soft, ghostly print that captures the shape of whatever you laid on top.
Both techniques share a certain unpredictability — you're working with the chemistry and the light rather than controlling every frame — and that's a good part of the appeal. You don't need any prior experience to get involved, and you'll be making your own prints as you go, so you'll walk away with something you actually made. It's a chance to see how photography works at its most basic level, stripped back to just light and chemistry.
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The workshop is on Saturday 17 October at Craft & Culture here in Birmingham, led by Tom Godwin. If you're interested, you can find more details on the Birmingham Museums website.
