László Moholy-Nagy started working on photograms in the 1920s. In his book vision in motion (1946) the artist describes the technique as follows: “When you expose photo paper or film to light, light effects of different intensities are recorded directly on the light-sensitive paper in shades of black, white and grey. In practice, what this means is creating a photographic negative by placing objects on the layered surface. Opaque objects therefore leave behind areas that are white because the paper remains unexposed where these objects have contact with the surface.” (ed. trans.)

Moholy-Nagy tried to make light visible and create an abstract spatial impression using abstract light shapes. He created more than 400 light images between 1922 and 1943, about 100 created in Chicago. The photogram shown here comes from the artist’s final phase. László Moholy-Nagy opened the School of Design in Chicago in 1939 and courses in the “light laboratory” were a permanent part of the study programme. There students designed abstract compositions of light and shadow in the form of photograms.

Between November 1941 and November 1942 the School of Design, with László Moholy-Nagy as its director, organised an exhibition on how photograms were made titled, How to Make a Photogram, which was first of all presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, then at various schools and universities across the USA.