Like any good landscape photographer, Meghann Riepenhoff relies on perspective, light and location to capture striking scenes of the natural world. What she doesn't rely on is a camera. That's because the un-shutterbug works with cyanotype, a printing process in which paper or canvas treated with a photosensitive chemical solution is exposed to UV light (usually sunlight), resulting in blueprintlike pictures. Riepenhoff's twist on the 19th-century technique: allowing earthy elements—sand, silt, coarse grains of salt, flecks of dirt—to leave their mark on her arresting pieces. "Time, weather, and movement are always embedded in the final image," she says. "If a print was placed in wild surf, it'll be covered in splashes of salt-spray whites and aquatic blues. But photos created in a pool will have a smooth wash."
