Shadow Catchers – photography without a camera

Many of us have played with the simple exposure of objects onto photographic paper but this exhibition opened my eyes to the immense possibilities of camera-less photography. I find this concept of using light and paper terribly romantic. Light is something all artists and designers use at some point or another but these five creators push the boundaries in yet another direction.

Pierre Cordier has worked with different chemicals and materials on paper to produce his “chemigrams”. This one looks like a hyper-real painting

Another looks like a desert:

Adam Fuss uses different techniques again, including this daguerrotype of a butterfly:

Susan Derges has created images of flowing water using just paper and a flash. Some of her work is in the permanent collection.

The exhibition runs at the Victoria & Albert museum in London until the 20th of February 2011