To Help Glaciers With The Colour Blue
2024 - ongoing
‘To Help Glaciers With The Colour Blue’ is a photographic research into the use of geotextiles to preserve glaciers in Switzerland. To slow the melting of glaciers, large geotextile sheets are laid over the ice and surrounding snow. These large sheets retain cold temperatures and shield the glacier surface from direct sunlight.
Research indicates that the geotextile fabrics currently in use can release microplastics under severe weather conditions. These microplastics are carried downstream through meltwater and may, over time, impact the natural environment. This also poses a risk to the villages below, which depend on glacial meltwater.
This body of work is produced in the Swiss Alps. Here, Joey Streppel creates cyanotype prints accompanied by a series of photos. By placing a large (plastic free) cotton cloth within the landscape at the same locations where geotextiles are typically applied, the sunlight reflected by the glacier is captured and registered directly onto the fabric.
The abstract image emerges on the canvas through the blue tones of the cyanotype process. Through this method, nature becomes its own author, with sunlight and ice leaving abstract impressions on the cloth.
These cyanotypes serve as a tribute to the glaciers and the surrounding landscape that we are slowly losing.
Research indicates that the geotextile fabrics currently in use can release microplastics under severe weather conditions. These microplastics are carried downstream through meltwater and may, over time, impact the natural environment. This also poses a risk to the villages below, which depend on glacial meltwater.
This body of work is produced in the Swiss Alps. Here, Joey Streppel creates cyanotype prints accompanied by a series of photos. By placing a large (plastic free) cotton cloth within the landscape at the same locations where geotextiles are typically applied, the sunlight reflected by the glacier is captured and registered directly onto the fabric.
The abstract image emerges on the canvas through the blue tones of the cyanotype process. Through this method, nature becomes its own author, with sunlight and ice leaving abstract impressions on the cloth.
These cyanotypes serve as a tribute to the glaciers and the surrounding landscape that we are slowly losing.
2025 - Summiteers
Exposure 2024 - HKU Graduation Show
2024 - Heilige Huisjes - UtrechtDownUnder
Contact sheets showing the process of creating the cyanotype print in 2024 at the Sankt Annafirn glacier, Andermatt, Switzerland.