Per Bak Jensen’s photographs possess a universal expression and cover a wide range of themes and topics. At first glance, the pictures may seem empty, devoid of human presence. Upon closer inspection, however, one discovers traces of human intervention. Per Bak Jensen often finds his topics in a meditative working process. He believes that every place contains a secret or a mystery, which he tries to capture and preserve in photography.
Silence and absence
In Per Bak Jensen ’s practice, photography, which has traditionally been used for documentation, is used in an exploration of space and object aimed at finding an elementary human aspect or an universal story. He selects and examines images that possess a profound silence and a wordless story of inner life. The three photographs that are now included in the collection of the Art Museum in Tønder are characterized by an openness that invites the individual viewer to engage in their own interpretation. The resulting dialogue with the viewer brings out an added aspect of the works besides their strictly documentary content.
Appearance
The Art Museum in Tønder is dedicated to Nordic art and stages exhibitions of older as well as contemporary works. Per Bak Jensen is an important representative of the Nordic expression and an artist who is not only capable of documenting a uniquely Nordic universe but also seeks to shape it and convey it through his practice. Gensyn, Figur and Spir were all included in his solo exhibition ‘Gensyn’ (Appearance) at the Art Museum in Tønder in 2015.
About Per Bak Jensen
Per Bak Jensen (b. 1949) is one of Denmark’s leading modern landscape photographers. He graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1986 as the first Academy student to express himself exclusively through photography. In 1986–2009 he was a professor at the Academy. Per Bak Jensen is represented in numerous museums both in Denmark and abroad, including MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both in New York, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen. He has received many accolades, among them the Eckersberg Medal (2005), the Thorvaldsen Medal (2015) and the New Carlsberg Foundation’s Artist Grant (2009).
