British photographer Katerina Jebb has become well-known for her unusual techniques that question the immediacy of her images – creating a distance between the subject and the object by way of layering. Her work can be seen in the archives of Comme des Garçons, Guy Laroche and Givenchy. Katerina has often used photocopying techniques in place of cameras or to complement her camera work, with models lying on photocopiers or reproducing the images on a photocopier for effect and to distort the level at which the viewer can connect with the image.

For Haider Ackermann’s A#3, Katerina has contributed the double page shown above, two photographs that offer a sinuous sequence from one to the other – as though stills taken from a movie. Seemingly a mother and child locked in a naked embrace, the images are blurred beyond definite focus, any recognition of defining features or blemishes are lost, leaving the contrast of milky white skin and a shadowy background. The child looks to be laughing, adding a lightness, humanity and movement to this otherwise shadowy image, which recalls renaissance nudes of voluptuous women in static poses. The appeal of the images comes greatly from the raw sensuality – the power of light and dark, mother and child, young and old, the seen and the unseen.