In the past while working as a photographer Jan had been commissioned to document dance companies in Germany but in his personal work he was looking for a way to move beyond the direct documentational approach.

So when he was given the chance to work with one his favourite dance groups, Sasha Waltz and the dance choreographer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaolo, Jan saw an opportunity to bring these two art disciplines together and create something new. Esnaolo's new piece "Ars Melancholia" was an ideal subject for Jan, who was experiencing a sad and difficult time in his own life.

Wanting to produce images that made the dancers appear to float Jan produced sketches which the dancer would try out. Then each artist would mould and tweak the pose until both photographer and dancer were happy with the end result. By developing a greater understanding for each other's art form, it became possible for the dancer and photographer to go beyond each of their own disciplines, creating something new. Dance became more than it could in reality and photography grew beyond its own confines of documentation. The simple turning of the image by 90 or 180 degrees became the moment of transformation that made Jan's "magical" expression he called "The Snowbed".