The Joy of Scanography - 30 Beautiful Instagram Posts To Keep You Inspired
Scanography doesn’t get enough love! It is the art of producing images using digital flatbed scanners. I am in the process of writing an essay on why it is a distinct art form from photography, but in the meantime here are some great posts that I’ve found on instagram to keep you inspired. For now keep in mind that these images were captured by the scanning element slowly making its way across the scanner surface. More like a long exposure photograph where everything is captured bit by bit, starting from one end and ending at the other. In addition the flat plane of the scanner surface provides very limited depth of field, and anything beyond what is immediately touching it is out of focus. The combination of these factors allows for a variety of visual effects and techniques that are unique to scanography.
Scanography is also quite accessible as any old scanner will work and old models can be had for cheap. The work below was created with a $10 one that I found at the Hobart tip shop. It’s no longer supported on Windows 10 but this can be bypassed by using an XP virtual machine. I was able to achieve the illusion of water by scanning bubble wrap and moving it rapidly from side to side while the image was captured.
More examples from my body of work can be seen in my digital art portfolio.
Now that you have a basic idea of what scanography is, here are some absolutely beautiful works from around Instagram. If you like their work please do show them some love. To make this list I looked at fresh rather than popular work, so many of the artists featured in this post currently have extremely small followings.
01. outdoorscanography
I wanted to start off with this artist as they actually go the extra lengths to take their bulky scanner outdoors. That’s what you call dedication! It makes these images extra special as they’re really pushing the boundaries of this art form.