Photographer Series #12: meghannshotkatemoss

Meghann Riepenhoff recently visited New York from her home in San Francisco in order to attend an opening of her own exhibition, Littoral Drift, at Foley Gallery. This body of work was selected, by curator Charlotte Cotton, as the winning portfolio for the Camera Club of New York’s 2014 Annual Juried Exhibition.

Littoral Drift #05, Two Waves

Littoral Drift is a series of camera-less cyanotypes made in the landscape via submerging paper in bodies of water, burying it in sand and exposing in sunlight. These stunning pieces are examples of the way in which Meghann engages a breadth of photographic technologies, transforming “mundane detritus and alter processes to recall telescopic and microscopic views”. In doing so she considers the relationship between the insignificant and the immense, the sublime, impermanence, and the role photography plays in mediating the human experience.

Meghann’s work has been widely exhibited and published. After learning of ishotkatemoss, she quickly expressed an interest in exploring and collaborating with the project. This was intriguing as her work is ethereal, she has created celestial landscapes and spectacular galaxies. In many respects, we were trying to disassociate and dismiss the view of kate, and the ideas of model perfection, as ‘celestial bodies’. Why was she so fascinated by what iskm was doing?

Meghann Riepenhoff  (MR): I'm interested in manipulating processes and materials in fairly simple, yet often previously unconsidered ways. In reconsidering the prescribed ways we relate to media and tools, there is often a revelation around potential, what is/was unseen, and how large of a mystery in which we exist. iskm does this from a completely different, yet relatable, perspective.

iskm: How do you approach a subject such as kate?

MR: A friend and I were talking about Kate Moss and she described her as 'shape shifty' because the photographic representation of her is so varied and even disparate. I thought about the ways identities exist in layers, and how we attempt to articulate or impose them via media. I also thought about the Buddhist 'no-self' theory, where conditioning shapes beliefs we have about self, perception, existence, etc. Images are perhaps the most powerful tools we have for shaping perception, and so I wanted to use leading image technology to play with a picture of Kate I extracted from Aperture's most recent magazine.

Untitled (ishotkatemoss); video still

iskm: Why did you utilize the image that Aperture highlighted in its “Fashion” edition?

MR: My choice was not necessarily about specific content from the “Fashion” edition, but more generally about the mediating nature of context. A publication like Aperture can position an image in a way that is different than any other magazine, and yet the nature of weighting (intentionally or inadvertently) an image is not unique. Stephen Shore described the photographic print as "an object" with "its own life in the world” and explored the implications of a print winding up "in a shoebox or in a museum". So there’s this understanding that a photograph has a life, and changes meaning given context, time, viewership, etc. … and that the experience of a photograph is collaborative, with what it encounters contributing to defining its existence. Also there is the nature of photography itself, which is a constantly evolving medium that regularly redefines itself with technologies and new applications of ideas. 

iskm: What did you to your chosen Kate Moss images and why?

MR: I like to have a certain irreverence toward materials and tools in my practice, to use them in ways not prescribed, in hopes of generating new kinds of results. I also have a love for DIY, low-fi, and residue of process. For iskm, I used a really basic Photoshop tool and simply played with layer opacity. Then I recorded a video of this shifting image with my phone, which I’d propped on my computer with a stack of Post-its before capturing a video still for the iskm collage. When I first learned about iskm, I loved that it teetered on the line of serious and playful, rigorous and casual. In my practice and with this piece, I want the tools I use to be relevant to the subject matter and tone. So for Kate, Photoshop and a Post-it tripod were obvious choices.

Here is Meghann's Untitled (ishotkatemoss) video:

iskm: Have you worked with video before?

MR: I have and actually made a video that, very much like the Kate piece, slowly oscillated between two similar images. It was called 'Athens 4am' and depicted a view looking out of a window onto moonlit, bare wintery trees. The focus shifted from the distant trees to the pane of the window, where condensation had collected on the glass. The change was almost imperceptible, but there was never a stasis moment, where change wasn’t happening. Applying a similar approach to Kate seemed in line with the ideas driving this piece.

iskm: How do you feel your approach to photography/art making affected your kate moss work?
MR: I love scientific imagery for the reason that I believe science is constantly revealing just how little we know. Each new image of the cosmos or nano particles reveals that what we previously saw, and therefore believed, is in a state of constant unknown. With Kate, I applied this same curiosity around both the tools and the idea of identity of a thing that is in flux, illusory, and perhaps a disappearing concept all together. 

iskm: Which photographer/s would you most want to most see involved in iskm?

MR: Walead Beshty because I love his banal process that creates literal traces, and yet the image quality transcends that. The crumpled cyanotypes and photograms feel like exquisite representations of some intricate system or place however they're just crumpled paper and light. There's something really smart about his work in how simple the treatment is. 

Also I’m part of this really kickass group called Library Candy and I’d love to see each of those artists (Eric William Carroll, McNair Evans, Lucas Foglia, Jason Fulford, Katy Grannan, Chris McCaw, Richard Misrach, Nigel Poor) respond to ishotkatemoss.

iskm: Thanks so much Meghann.

MR: This was fun.

More of Meghann’s stunning work can be seen at www.meghannriepenhoff.com. Over to you Library Candy!

Observe. Slow Down. Shoot. Submit. 

www.ishotkatemoss.com