| #Photography | In Conversation with Jessica Backhaus | |
The word "photography", when traced back to its Greek roots, literally means "light writing." It’s a craft that is utterly dependent on its light source. The sun's position can change everything – including an image's atmosphere and clarity. Jessica Backhaus is a Berlin-based artist who works with a digital camera, yet still manages to strip photography back to its fundamentals. Light, shadow, form and colour are her key tenets. For Cut Outs (2021), she arranged paper shapes under the baking Berlin summer sun. As the pink, blue and yellow pieces started to curl and bend, she pressed the shutter – freezing their dance-like forms forever. Now, her latest monograph, Plein Soleil, charts the next stage in her journey towards abstraction.  A: What's the step-by-step process of making one of these images? Can you walk us through your approach?
JB: This new series, titled Plein Soleil, came from my longing for colour, as well as my love for paper and light. As the name suggests, I created the images under bright sunlight by placing rectangular and square sheets on top of coloured paper. I then bent and arranged them into paper sculptures. My process is very intuitive and fluid, and Plein Soleil emerged organically, as I positioned and shifted various papers to see where they would take me. Only when I saw the right composition, and felt the proper tension, did I take the final shot. A: Who, or what, are your biggest creative influences?
JB: My main sources of inspiration are painting, music, film and dance. I admire Etel Adnan, a leading 20th century voice for contemporary Arab-American culture, who moved between writing and art seamlessly. There’s also Helen Frankenthaler, a true pioneer of abstract expressionism. She was a key player in the history of post-war American painting alongside the likes of Mark Rothko and his colour fields. When it comes to abstraction, Hilma af Klint, Jean Arp, Raoul de Keyser and Sonia Delaunay are also high up on my list. Plus, International Klein Blue will never cease to move me. A: Are you working on any new projects at the moment?
JB: After Cut Outs, I decided to start The Nature of Things. It will probably remain ongoing for another two years, but it is about the tension and interplay between figuration and abstraction. It zeroes in on everyday objects and situations: cacti, car windows, paperweights. I will admit that, over the last few years, I have become more and more drawn to abstraction. It offers space to imagine, feel and dream. A: What do you think the future of abstraction will look like? Are there any contemporary or emerging practitioners whom you are particularly enjoying right now?
JB: It looks bright. It’s a mysterious and fascinating genre, and, for many years, we’ve been witnessing its rise in the contemporary photography space. In terms of ones-to-watch, I much appreciate the monochrome oil paintings of Suzan Frecon and Irina Ojovan. Erin O’Keefe makes wonderful geometric shapes, and I love Erika Hock's sculptures. Cécile Bart works between painting and installation, coating translucent screens in paint. Bart’s images rely on chance, angles and the intensity of sunlight. Hopefully, seeing as the recent influx of AI-generated imagery has led to distrust in pictures that look “too good to be true”, we’ll see a resurgence in the popularity of analogue – or unedited – image processes. 
All images: Jessica Backhaus, Untitled, (2023). Courtesy Robert Morat Gallery, Berlin. |
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