Great question! There's a rich history of photographic images created without a camera. The best known type is the photogram which (according to a purist definition) involves placing objects in contact with unexposed film then exposing it to light to capture silhouette and/or refraction patterns. A famous practitioner of this technique was the early 20th-century artist Man Ray who called his works "rayographs". One of the more imaginative photogram series I've seen involved burying film in soil then digging it up and processing it to reveal organic decay patterns.

Photograms aren't the only type of cameraless photography though. For example, I've also seen pictures created from x-ray images, and pinhole images created by covering a window with tin foil then letting light in through a pin-prick.

If you need some inspiration, how about these:

• Check out the Photograms group on Flickr for ideas.

• If you don't have easy access to film or developing facilities, why not get hold of a cheap scanner and try your hand at some digital photograms? (No doubt that'll send the purists crazy - double win!)

• For some astonishing examples of what can be done with an old film camera body but no lens, look at the work of Alan Jaras on Flickr. [Disclosure: Alan is my father-in-law.]