Adam Jeppesen's Cyanotype Work no.138 at Paris Photo

At Paris Photo 2019, artpress featured Adam Jeppesen's Work no.138 (2019), a large-format cyanotype on linen (181 x 132 cm) from his series The Ponds. The work, fictively purchased by Maud de la Forterie, was presented by Martin Asbæk Gallery (Copenhagen) at the Grand Palais, Paris, from November 7-10, 2019. Using the proto-photographic cyanotype process invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, Jeppesen captures the imprint of a hand pressed against sensitized linen, exposed to light, then washed and submerged in a developer bath. The resulting image emerges and dissolves simultaneously, creating a floating, ethereal hand bathed in blue tones. Jeppesen questions the authority and materiality of the impression: the image does not merely rest on the surface but penetrates the fibers, taking root in the fabric's weave. The work evokes spectral realities, a presence and its echo in an eerie, twilight dreaminess. Paris Photo was the fourth stop in artpress's fictive shopping basket, following Approche, Photo Saint-Germain, and Polycopies.