A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light.

The usual result is a negative shadow image that shows variations in tone that depends upon the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed for a shorter time or through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey, while fully-exposed areas are black in the final print.

The technique is sometimes called cameraless photography. It was used by Man Ray in his rayographs. Other artists who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy, Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and Pablo Picasso.

Variations of the technique have also been used for scientific purposes, in shadowgraph studies of flow in transparent media and in high-speed Schlieren photography, and in the medical X-ray.

The term photogram comes from the combining form phōtō- (φωτω-) of Ancient Greek phôs (φῶς, "light"), and Ancient Greek suffix -gramma (-γραμμα), from grámma (γράμμα, "written character, letter, that which is drawn"), from gráphō (γράφω, "to scratch, to scrape, to graze").

The phenomenon of the shadow has long aroused human curiosity and inspired artistic representation, as recorded by Pliny the Elder, and various forms of shadow play since the 1st millennium BCE. The photogram, in essence, is a means by which the fall of light and shade on a surface may be automatically captured and preserved. To do so required a substance that would react to light. From the 17th century, photochemical reactions were progressively observed or discovered in salts of silver, iron, uranium and chromium. In 1725, Johann Heinrich Schulze was the first to demonstrate a temporary photographic effect in silver salts, confirmed by Carl Wilhhelm Scheele in 1777, who found that violet light caused the greatest reaction in silver chloride. Humphry Davy and Thomas Wedgewood reported that they had produced temporary images from placing stencils/light sources on photo-sensitized materials, but had no means of fixing (making permanent) the images.

The first photographic negatives made were photograms (though the first permanent photograph was made with a camera by Nicéphore Niépce). William Henry Fox Talbot called these photogenic drawings, which he made by placing leaves or pieces of lace onto sensitized paper, then left them outdoors on a sunny day to expose. This produced a dark background with a white silhouette of the placed object.

In 1843, Anna Atkins produced a book titled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in installments; the first to be illustrated with photographs. The images were all photograms of botanical specimens, mostly seaweeds, which she made using Sir John Herschel's cyanotype process, which yields blue images.