Tempel van Nikè op de akropolis van Athene before 1910

Here is Frédéric Boissonnas' photograph of the Temple of Nikè on the Acropolis of Athens, made using a cyanotype process. It’s a very blue affair, the kind of blue you get when you leave a pair of jeans out in the sun. I love how the blue flattens the image, almost turning it into a line drawing. You can see the texture of the paper, it's got these fibrous flecks and bumps. The sky is almost white and textureless, in contrast to the rich density of the temple columns. The image sits on the right-hand page of what appears to be a photo album. On the left, another fainter photo, with some descriptive text. The whole image is a document of a document. It makes me think of artists like Gerhard Richter, or Zoe Leonard, artists for whom the process of mediation is as important as the subject. The conversation between photography and painting remains unresolved.