“Flipping through piles of photography books at the Brooklyn Public Library, I came upon a cyanotype by Henri Le Secq, entitled Farmyard Scene, near St.-Leu-d’Esserent, dated 1852. Through the blue murk you can pick out bucolic details. Roof thatching, a barrel, some crates. The building on the right appears built into the hillside, its roof indistinguishable from a rock that arches into the center of the image before disappearing into shadow. The shadow is large and blue and bores through the center of the image like a tunnel. It is supposedly a scene, but there is no activity, no focal point. Only this blind blue space between two buildings. Only nothing but blue.”

ben tapeworm, Photo Blues, 2025

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Photo Blues is an essay about photography during COVID, vis-à-vis various blues

Copies can be purchased here.

Photo Blues by ben tapeworm