Drawn from the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Shadows on the Wall: Cameraless Photography from 1851 to Today presents 50 evocative images created with light and chemistry but without the use of a camera.

Made for science or for art, the photographs on view vary in size from a few inches to 25 feet. The images reflect a range of techniques as visually diverse as the movements of art to which they belong—recording the precise outlines of botanical specimens, the alchemy of the darkroom, or the abstraction of form. Although sometimes simply made, the photographs explore the complex relationship between reality and representation.