Doin' it in the Dark

This chapter is about making photochemical films without cameras, or at least mostly without cameras. Back in the 1920s artist Man Ray first had the idea to put objects on top of photo paper and then expose that paper to light. He called these “ray-o-grams” and it wasn’t long before he experimented with doing this on motion picture film as well. You can see the results of such efforts in his films La Retour à la Raison (1923) and Emak Bakia (1926), both available online at www.ubu.com/film/ray.html.