Photography need not always involve a camera. Much of the work of Susan Derges, for example, makes use of photograms, or photographic images made by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material and then exposing it to light. Voila. No camera required.
The London-based artist often uses cameraless photo techniques to depict natural landscapes and processes. Her Prix Pictet-nominated work focused on the hydrologic cycle. The latest of her water series was created for the Eden Project, an ecological learning center in Cornwall, UK. The project allowed Derges to explore her ideas in an architectural setting. From the artist:
Large scale photograms of the transformation of water within the hydrological cycle were printed into the laminate of architectural glass… The metamorphosis of water as it recycles itself throughout the environment became a visual narrative that also operated as a metaphor for wider cycles of life, death and renewal.