All types of movies recording directly or indirectly the light and shadow impression of three-dimensional objects are classified in that filmography as photogram films.

Man Ray was the first artist who used the direct method 1923 for “Le Retour à la Raison”. He put directly objects, like salt, nails or pins, on a b/w 35mm film and exposed them.

Stefan and Franciszka Themerson used in 1930 for “Apteka” the indirect method. They used a trick table with a matt glass filming the shadows on the glass from the bottom.

The differenciation in direct and indirect methods originates from x-ray cinematography. One of their protagonists was the German Robert Janker. Later L.J. Ramsey denoted the direct procedure as cineradiography and the indirect procedure, filming a fluorescent screen, as cinefluorography. The first direct x-ray film probably was made by the Scotsman Dr. John MacIntyre in 1986 - a 40 feet film recording the movements of a frog’s leg.

Escritor by Gustavo Roman, , AG 1998

All films resulting from a different interactions with the film material are summarized as further cameraless techniques. Referring to the technique using flat clichés like the so called film footage can also be conceived as a cliché verre technique. The experimental light films experiment almost just with the projection modalities and the light beam. In handpainted films the artists paint or draw directly on footage or clear film. There are also chemigram films treating the film surface with chemicals or bacteria. But the gelatine surface can also be cratched, in a “brulage” it is even burned.

Litterature:

-Janker, Robert: Die Röntgenkinematographie, Stuttgart, Berlin 1939.
- Ramsey, L.J.: Early Cineradiography and Cinefluorography, in: History of Photography, Volume 7, N°4, Octobre-Descember 1983, p.311-322

-Man Ray: Self Portrait, Boston 1963, p.260.

- Czartoryska, Urszula: Stefan i Franciszka Themerson – Poszukiwania wizualne, Visual Researches, Lodz 1981.
- Themerson, Stefan: The urge to create visions, Amsterdam 1983
- Rees A.L.: The Themersons and the Polish Avant-Gard - Warsaw-Paris-London, in: Halberstadt, Ilona (Hrsg.), Pix 1, p.86-101.

Picture on the bottom: Sketch about the indirect and the direct procedure of x-ray cinematography by Robert Janker. Source: Janker, Robert: Die Röntgenkinematographie, Stuttgart, Berlin 1939, p.49.