Meg Turner

Printmaker and photographer working out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her practice spans prints, photography, and installation projects that respond to the landscape and the community she is part of.

In addition to her own work and contract printing, Meg serves as the master printer for local photogravure and wet collodion artist Josephine Sacabo. She founded the New Orleans Community Printshop and has since stepped back from a leadership position to focus on her studio practice.

She shoots primarily with a 4×5 Crown Graphic press camera, working in film and wet collodion.

A circular portrait embedded in a dramatic magenta-to-indigo gradient field, with deep black edges framing the composition

The Art of the Photogram: Cameraless Images

A photogram begins where ordinary photography seems to stop: without a lens, a camera body or a viewfinder. Objects are placed directly onto light-sensitive paper, exposed, and developed to reveal silhouettes, shadows and subtle traces. The result is less a picture taken of the world than a physical encounter with light, time and material.

For a printmaker and photographer such as Meg Turner, this process sits naturally beside wet collodion, darkroom practice, traditional printmaking and installation. Her portfolio brings these forms together through prints, photographs, exhibitions, collaborations and contract printing, giving viewers a useful way to understand how a simple darkroom experiment can become a considered body of work.

Seeing Without A Camera

The photogram has a long history, from early experiments by William Henry Fox Talbot to the bold, abstract compositions associated with Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. Yet the technique remains immediate. A leaf, piece of lace, length of thread or scrap of paper can become an image as soon as it interrupts the path between an enlarger and photographic paper.

Because the object touches the emulsion, the image records presence in a direct way. Transparent materials may produce soft grey passages, while solid forms block light and create white silhouettes against a dark ground. Movement during exposure can create a blurred edge, turning a still object into evidence of gesture and duration.

The process also encourages attention to negative space. What is absent becomes as important as what is present, and a small arrangement can hold the visual tension of a much larger photograph. This makes cameraless photography especially compelling for artists interested in memory, ecology, domestic objects or the boundary between image and sculpture.

The Darkroom As A Drawing Space

Making a photogram involves many of the decisions found in drawing and printmaking. The artist selects a surface, considers scale, arranges shapes, tests exposure and decides when the image has reached the right density. The enlarger becomes a light source rather than a camera, and the darkroom becomes a place for composition.

Photographic paper responds with its own character. Fibre-based paper can produce rich blacks and a tactile, archival surface, while resin-coated paper offers a quicker and more forgiving workflow. Exposure tests are essential because the appearance of an object depends on its thickness, texture, distance from the paper and the angle of the light.

Traditional darkroom chemicals introduce another layer of judgement. Development may be stopped early for a pale, restrained image or extended for deeper contrast. Dodging and burning can refine the exposure, while toning may shift the print towards warm brown, cool selenium or another subtle colour. Each decision leaves a visible trace of the maker’s hand.

Materials, Shadows And Surface

Natural materials often produce the most surprising results. Ferns, seed pods, bark, shells and grasses have complex structures that create delicate networks of light and shade. In Australia, local specimens can connect a work to place without becoming a literal landscape image: a banksia cone from Victoria, paperbark from New South Wales or dried coastal grass from South Australia carries a quiet sense of its environment.

Everyday materials can be equally expressive. Glass, mesh, plastic, clothing and handwritten paper introduce recognisable associations while still allowing abstraction. A transparent bottle may create a halo, a folded shirt can suggest a body, and a torn envelope can turn an ordinary fragment into a record of communication.

The final print is shaped by edges and contact. Objects pressed firmly against the paper tend to create sharper outlines, while raised forms allow light to spread underneath and produce a soft glow. This small gap between object and emulsion is where much of the photogram’s atmosphere lives.

From Experimental Print To Finished Work

A successful photogram does not have to be perfectly controlled. Accidental marks, uneven development and unexpected tonal shifts can carry the energy of the process. For artists working across photography and printmaking, these variables may be preserved rather than corrected, allowing the finished work to retain its material history.

Series are especially effective because repetition reveals difference. The same object can be exposed at several distances, rotated through different positions or combined with other elements. Viewed together, the prints become a study of transformation rather than a collection of isolated effects.

Presentation also changes how a cameraless image is read. A small fibre-based print invites close looking, while a large photogram can become architectural when installed across a wall. Groups of prints, suspended objects and projected light can extend the work into an installation, connecting the image back to the physical conditions that produced it.

Photograms In An Australian Context

Australian artists and collectors often respond strongly to work that connects process with landscape, material and locality. A photogram can speak to those interests without relying on a postcard view. It may register the structure of a eucalyptus leaf, the texture of a suburban fence or the fragile form of a shell gathered near Fremantle, making place present through touch and shadow.

The local art market also rewards clarity about editioning, scale and production. Independent galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide regularly balance experimental practice with practical questions about framing, shipping and price. For emerging artists, a carefully documented series can work across a group exhibition, an artist book or an online portfolio, while regional spaces may favour work that has a strong relationship to community and environment.

Climate matters in the studio, too. Heat and humidity can affect paper storage, chemical behaviour and drying times, particularly during a Queensland summer or a sticky afternoon in Darwin. In casual Australian terms, the darkroom may be a place to slow down during a hectic arvo, but it still requires careful ventilation, clean trays and consistent handling.

A local network can make the process more sustainable. Community printshops, shared darkrooms and artist-run spaces offer access to enlargers, sinks and specialist knowledge without requiring every maker to build a fully equipped studio. For artists seeking collaborative production or technical support, the broader creative network represented by Sakao Lifeworks can also provide a useful point of connection.

Building A Practice Around The Image

Photograms can remain private experiments, yet they can also become the foundation of a professional practice. Contract printing allows an experienced artist to work with other photographers and printmakers, translating digital files, negatives or experimental concepts into physical editions. The skill lies in maintaining technical consistency while respecting another artist’s intention.

Documentation is part of that work. A portfolio should show individual prints, sequences, installation views and details of paper surfaces. Notes about process, dimensions, edition numbers and darkroom methods help curators, collectors and fellow artists understand what they are seeing. A clear record of exhibitions and collaborations gives the work context, and Meg Turner’s artist CV offers an example of how professional activity can sit alongside an artistic portfolio.

For makers developing their own photogram series, the following foundations are useful:

A thoughtful presentation can strengthen the connection between process and audience:

The appeal of the photogram is its directness. It turns light into an active collaborator and asks the artist to notice what an object does when it becomes a shadow, a silhouette or a translucent stain. In a culture saturated with instant digital images, that physical encounter can feel unusually deliberate.

Explore Meg Turner’s prints, photographic projects and exhibition history, then use the contact information on her website to discuss collaborations, contract printing or commissioned darkroom work. A single object and a sheet of light-sensitive paper may be all that is needed to begin a new body of work.