Untitled · 1260· P2 from The Flatlands Camp Project

Untitled · 1260· P2

from The Flatlands Camp Project
2012
Artist
Adam Jeppesen, Danish, 1978-
Born: Denmark
Work Locations: Copenhagen, Denmark, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Locale
Washington
Country
United States
Object
photograph, xerography
Medium
Xerography on paper with straight pins
Accession Number
2013.66
Credit Line
Purchase with Photography Department funds

Adam Jeppesen, Untitled 1260 P2, from The Flatlands Camp Project, 2012. Xerography and straight pins. Denver Art Museum Collection: Funds from the Photography Acquisitions Alliance.

Dimensions
frame height: 54 15/16 in, 139.5413 cm; frame width: 44 3/8 in, 112.7125 cm; frame depth: 2 1/2 in, 6.3500 cm
Edition
of 4
Department
Photography
Collection
Photography

In 2009 and 2010, Adam Jeppesen traveled, alone and mostly on foot, from Barrow, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, making photographs along the way. The resulting series, Flatlands Camp, explores the relationship between photography’s documentary and expressive aspects and delves into questions about the way a photograph mediates direct experience and memory. Jeppesen’s photographs begin as notations, like entries in a visual diary, that record specific views or incidents along Jeppesen’s path. Often the images refer to the forms and strategies of traditional landscape photography and evoke the work of 19th century expeditionary photographers such as Timothy O’Sullivan, William Henry Jackson, and William Bell.

During his travels, Jeppesen carries his loose sheet film in a box inside his backpack. Dust and grit find their way into the box, and between the sheets of film, where they scratch and abrade his images even before he prints them. An elaborate combination of analog, digital and xerographic printing further interferes with the illusion of a real and present moment that is a mainstay of photographic description. The marks and artifacts of Jeppesen’s process erode his originally sharp, clear, images in much the same way that time and emotional distance erode one’s original experience of a place.

Known Provenance
Museum purchase from [Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark]
Exhibition History
  • “New Territory: Landscape Photography Today” — Denver Art Museum, 6/24/2018 – 9/16/2018