T45. Plantograms, Aquagrams and Billetograms with Francisco Macfarlane

This workshop proposes an experimental approach to black and white photography through alternative processes and camera-less techniques. The practice combines traditional photochemical procedures with organic and material interventions, opening the darkroom as a space for exploration.Using everyday and natural materials, participants will work with plantograms, billetograms, aquagrams, contact prints, and double exposures in the darkroom. The objective is to explore how matter, gesture, and transformation can alter the construction of the photographic image.The process includes the chemical treatment of leaves, the use of banknotes as negatives, manual development, and the combination of previously produced techniques to create hybrid images. The workshop invites participants to rethink photography through practice, understanding the darkroom as a territory of experimentation where image, support, and process become integrated.

Schedule

1. Introduction to alternative black and white processes and overview of the workshop dynamics
2. Plantogram: preparation of leaves by removing the cuticle, boiling with bicarbonate, drying, and producing contact prints using the leaves as negatives
3. Billetogram: introduction to black and white printing in the darkroom and creation of prints using banknotes as negatives in the enlarger
4. Aquagrams: introduction to the technique and key references, practical production, and inversion of prints through contact printing or by using them as paper negatives
5. Double exposure: explanation of the technique in the darkroom and combination of two previously produced processes, such as billetograms and aquagrams
6. Collective review of the results and workshop closing