To whom it may concern: Alternative process (Part 1- Rayogram)

When our class was shown all the alternative printing process’ this was the one that immediately caught my attention, because it wasn’t really an alternative way to print a photo but an alternative way to compose a photo entirely.

I really likes this idea because I felt that I could now create all of the things that my poor drawing skills could not. This is the reason I grew to love photography, it gives people with limited “artistic” skill or confidence the opportunity and tools to stop thinking of themselves as “non creative” and express themselves in a technical way (this gave me the confidence to push the limits of my art, gave me a new emotional outlet, and introduced me to a new silent form of communication)

Being the analytical person that I am, I decided to create a biological metaphor for my rayogram. I created a neuron made from small twigs and sticky tack. I made this as a reference to the “tree of knowledge” because neurons look almost like a dead tree, and they control the path of both creative and analytic thought in our brains. I wanted to convey the stereotypic barrier of creativity and intellect and prove that no one is just an intellectual or creative but both.

Some of my inspiration

The actual process for making the rayogram was actually quite simple. The first thing I did when trying to make my rayogram was make a model neuron from some pipe cleaners.

Neuron Version 1

This was the very first version of my rayogram. It didn’t seem to be creative or intellectual (not accurate compared to a real neuron) enough for what I was going for. To make the photo nicer to look at and add a little depth, I made an acetate of neurons with different shades of grey in photoshop, and put it right under my pipe cleaners. This really helped to make my rayogram more eye catching, and ascetically pleasing, but it was still not accurate enough.

Image found online

Edited version for acetate

Neuron Version 2

While I was trying to somehow manipulate my pipe cleaners to look ...well less like pipe cleaners I remembered why I chose to make a neuron in the first place the “tree of life”, and then it hit me! What better materiel to make my neuron out of than trees, so I went outside collected a bunch of sticks and started sticking them to my acetate, breaking little bits off, and rearranging them until I was happy.

Here are my final results.