1 February 2020 | New Scientist | 29Forever blue
Photographer
Meghann Riepenhoff
HOW do you immortalise an
ever-changing process? This is
the question US artist Meghann
Riepenhoff set out to answer with
Ecotone, a series of cyanotypes
that capture the many faces of
water – and the fragility of our
relationship with nature as Earth’s
waters are altered by such things
as industry and climate change.
Cyanotypes are a photographic
printing method invented in 1842
by John Herschel. Paper is coated
with a mixture of iron compounds
that, when exposed to light, create
images in a rich blue. Although it
is perhaps best known for creating
blueprints for technical drawings,
the process was also used by
Anna Atkins in the 19th century
to capture silhouettes of ferns
and seaweeds by placing them
directly onto reactive paper.
Inspired by Atkins, Riepenhoff
coats her paper with a homemade
cyanotype emulsion. The sheets
are then introduced to water. In
Ecotone, her focus is precipitation.
Rain, fog and snow are used to
make special effects – alongside
chance deposits of salt, dirt and
sand – before sunlight gradually
exposes her pieces. For different
Ecotone images, she hangs the
sheets over tree branches and
even buries them in ice.
Her cyanotypes are never
fully chemically fixed, allowing
them to change with their
environments. A static record
is created by photographing the
prints as the images evolve. ❚
Bethan Ackerley