Thanks to his successful books of documentary photographs of Germany, Chargesheimer is best known for that style of work. Lichtgrafik Monoskripturen illuminates his lesser-known explorations with abstraction and experimental processes. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Chargesheimer made many cameraless images, which he called lichtgrafiks (light graphics or light prints). Each abstract photogram, or perhaps more accurately chemigram, was made as a direct pour or manipulation of different chemistry on gelatin silver paper. Chargesheimer was profoundly affected by the near total destruction of Cologne in World War II. The liquidity of his forms—a perfect blend of control and chance—reflects both the nature of the chemicals that created them and a world lacking fixed forms and values. His images are amorphous and evocative and not faithful to anything existing outside the frame.