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The photogram is one of the earliest forms of the photographic process. William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography, called it a lucid manifestaion of 'the pencil of nature'; it uses neither negative nor camera but delicately records the shadow of an object directly onto light sensitive materials. One of the oldest photographic works in existence is a book of cyanotype photograms from the 1850s, by Anna Atkins. Neal Oshima has been using this medium for fine arts purposes since he attended graduate school in California in the late 1970s. He has spent decades perfecting the emulsions that he meticulously hand-coats on etching paper and exposes, often for hours, to ultraviolet light.

This series of photograms, which was made using antique hand-woven piqa garments from the Philippine colonial period, was started in 1989 and has been exhibited widely, both in Asia and in America. Oshima regards this series of images as virtual portraits of the original owners of these garments. "As I handle the weavings I get a perception of the person who wore them, their physicality, character, social standing and even their sexuality. Like portraiture, the process is one of making that personality manifest." (Artist's statement 2996) Although intrinsically photographic, each print is a unique monoprint which evokes a sense of nostalgia. Aptly described as the 'pencil of nature', the soft and 'sepia' effect of the material presents the perfect backdrop for the garments which Oshima successfully endowed with an element of mystery, a dreamlike tinge, a strange flavour, a peculiar tension , even something theatrical.