Jessica Backhaus

Born in Cuxhaven, Germany, in 1970, and raised in an artistic family, Jessica Backhaus is regarded as one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary photography in Germany today. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin and the Kunsthalle Erfurt. To date, she has ten publications to her name; Jesus and the Cherries, 2005, What Still Remains, 2008, One Day in November, 2008, I Wanted to See the World, 2010, ONE DAY- 10 photographers, 2010, Once, still and forever, 2012, Six degrees of freedom, 2015, A TRILOGY, 2017, Far away but Close, 2019 and Cut Outs, 2021, all published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg/ Berlin, except Far Away but Close which is published by Another Place Press, Scotland. Her work is also featured in the book: Women Photographers by Boris Friedewald (Prestel Verlag 2014).

From her large number of solo and group show we highlight the ones that took place in National Portrait Gallery, London, Goethe Institut, Paris, France, Arles, France Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznan, Poland, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Germany, Midland Art Centre, Birmingham andScottish National Portrait Gallery.

Jessica Backhaus’ works are in many prominent art collections including Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany, ING Art Collection, Belgium, Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA and the Margulies Collection, Miami, USA. In 2012 FOAM Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam produced a short documentary “Wonder Jessica Backhaus”, a film by Willem Aerts.

CV Apresentação Website

"Jessica has the natural ability to make relevant the most minimal. She has the talent to give it a touch of transcendence to the ephemeral, sensing the exact light needed to create its charm. Her photographs combine the simplicity of the motive with a sophisticated eye that makes them fresh, even inaugural.“ Antonio Skármeta

A Lemon, 2018
Archival Pigment Prints, 90 x 60 cm

Cherries, 2018
Archival Pigment Prints, 75 x 50 cm

“As writers, we admire the art of photographers - so close to reality and at the same time enigmatically personal. We are amazed by its dance, interwoven in the movement of ebbing lights and shadows; its suggestive presence hitting us in a single gush: that touch of revelation, atmosphere and color that merge us affectively with the image.

Not unlike the photo, we succumb to the poem, with its brief and paused breaths. Through half-closed eyelids we are witness to the plenitude of the moment, which invites us to simultaneously see and feel the familiar contours that are engraved in our daily lives."

Antonio Skármeta

Cut Outs, 2020
Archival Pigment Print
60 x 40 cm, 112.5 × 75 cm

Some Traces, 2014
Archival Pigment Prints, 50 x 75 cm

Vientecito, 2017
Archival Pigment Prints, 40 x 60 cm

Confinement in Berlin series, 2020
C-Print on index card
24,5 x 30,6 cm

Beyond Blue 2016
Inkjet print
45 x 30 cm

Liberty 2018
Archival Pigment Prints, 90 x 60 cm

Presence, image, and suggestion: art's sacred trinity is embodied with such generous concentration in these images by Jessica Backhaus, who we as Chileans should thank for making so exquisitely visible, what we are too distracted to notice. The power of the color that portrays and crowns the subject, provokes the sensation that we are seeing something we see every day but haven’t actually seen before.

Jessica has the natural ability to make relevant the most minimal. She has the talent to give it a touch of transcendence to the ephemeral, sensing the exact light needed to create its charm. Her photographs combine the simplicity of the motive with a sophisticated eye that makes them fresh, even inaugural.“ Antonio Skármeta

Piece of Berlin, 2015
C-print, 51 x 34 cm

You will see, 2016
Inkjet print, 60 x 40 cm

Cuxhaven, Germany, 1970