Meghann Riepenhoff

This work stems from my fascination with the nature our relationships to the landscape, the sublime, time, and impermanence. Entitled Littoral Drift, a geologic term describing the action of wind-driven waves transporting sand and gravel, the series consists of camera-less cyanotypes made in collaboration with the landscape and the ocean, at the edges of both. The elements that I employ in the process—waves, wind, and sediment—leave physical inscriptions through direct contact with photographic materials. Photochemically, the pieces are never wholly processed; they will continue to respond to the changing environments that they encounter over time. As part of the larger project, I selectively re-photograph moments in the evolution of the images, to generate a series of static records of a transitory process which will potentially end in self-destruction. Perhaps where the fugitive cyanotypes are analogies for a terrifyingly fleeting and beautiful existence, the process of re-photographing them is a metaphor for the incorporation and mediation of photography in the contemporary human experience. Image Titles: 01 Littoral Drift #26 (Tower Beach, SC 05.28.13, Tidal Pools, Dipped and Buried) 02 Littoral Drift Continuum #02 (Four Moments in Forty-eight Hours, Rodeo Beach, CA 07.21.13, One Wave, Plunged) 03 Littoral Drift #11 (Recto/Verso, Rodeo Beach, CA 06.31.13, One Wave, Dipped) 04 Littoral Drift #06 (Triptych, Rodeo Beach, CA 08.01.13, One Wave, Splashed) 05 Littoral Drift Continuum #07 (Four Moments in Forty-eight Hours, Jade Cove, CA 07.15.13, One Wave, Poured); 06 Littoral Drift #05 (Recto/Verso, Rodeo Beach, CA 08.01.13, Two Waves, Dipped) 07 Littoral Drift #16 (Recto/ Verso, Diptych, Rodeo Beach, 08.01.13, Two Waves, Buried and Saturated) 08 Littoral Drift Continuum #01 (Three Moments in Forty-eight Hours, Rodeo Beach, CA 07.21.13, One Wave, Poured) 09 Littoral Drift #18 (Recto/Verso, Diptych, Rodeo Beach, 08.01.13, Two Waves, Buried and Saturated) 10 Littoral Drift #10(Recto/Verso, Rodeo Beach, CA 07.21.13, Three Waves, Submerged)