Fake Flowers in Full Color, 2009

Somewhat capriciously, Dutch photographer Jaap Scheeren and graphic designer Hans Gremmen set out to see if they could create a three-dimensional color separation (the four parts of the printing process that add up to a full-color image). Using artificial flowers painted cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, they composed almost identical physical arrangements that they then documented with a digital camera. Toying with ideas of reproduction and representation, the experiment references the earliest color processes, such as the Lumière Brothers’ patented ALL Chroma, which required the physical layering of separate color gels on a glass plate to achieve a full-color spectrum, as well as more advanced technologies used to create the printed photographic reproductions that are central to Gremmen’s work as a photobook designer. Scheeren ultimately merged the four separate color photographs into one, resulting not in a perfectly registered full-color image but a charming aberration.

Pigment Print
Image Size: 15 x 19 inches
Paper Size: 16 x 20 inches
Edition of 15
Signed and numbered by the artists

Jaap Scheeren (b. 1979, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) studied at the St Joost Academy in Breda and exhibited his work widely since graduating in 2003, including the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Fotofestival Naarden, W 139 and De Balie, Amsterdam, Villa Noailles, Hyères Festival International de Mode et Photographie, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 6th International Biennial of Photography and Visual Arts, Liège, and at the Gallery Michalsky Dvor in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Hans Gremmen (b. 1976, The Netherlands) is a graphic designer and founder of publishing house Fw: Books. He works in the field of photography, architecture and fine arts for clients such as Office for Contemporary Art, Norway, Aperture Foundation, Roma Publications, Darat al Funun, and TUDelft. He has designed over 200 books, and won various awards for his experimental designs. Among them is a Golden Medal in the Best Book Design from all over the World competition. Hans Gremmen edited and curated various books and exhibitions about his ongoing research: the American landscape. In 2012 he made a five-hour movie about Route 66; ‘The Mother Road’. Currently, he is working on a new research project about the iconography of the American Landscape.