Cyanotype vs Photogram
サイアノタイプ / フォトグラム
Both sit in Photographic Techniques, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Cyanotype
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Fixes the outline of a light-struck object directly into deep blue, making record and lyric the same image.
Photogram
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No camera is involved. Objects laid on the sensitive surface and exposed to light turn contour, transparency and distance into the picture.
| Cyanotype | Photogram | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1842– | 1830s– / avant-garde revival |
| Family | Photographic Techniques | Photographic Techniques |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | Prussian blue / White object traces / Contact shadows / Chemical unevenness | Cameraless / Object contours / Reversed values / Contact and distance |
| Best used for | Directly recording plants, materials and objects · Adding the trace of handwork to drawings and archives | Recording small objects of differing transparency by contour and tone alone · Work that shows the experiment with light itself, without a camera |
| Type | White or pale letters; add small classification labels | For letters, lay cut stencils on the paper and leave them reversed |
| Composition | Lead with the object's contour; keep generous blue around it | Treat the sheet edge as the frame and choose contact or a gap |
| Material | One deep blue and the paper's white; don't polish away the exposure marks | Photo paper, lamp height, exposure time, distance controlling edge hardness |
| Caution | A blue filter is not the technique. Understand contact image, exposure and support. | This is not black and white abstraction in general. Merely arranging unusual objects records only shadows, while transparency and distance from the sensitized surface are what make the image. |