The German artist and photographer explores the photographic potential of abstraction, continuing her colorful study of form and light in her new book Plein Soleil.

Jessica Backhaus invites us into a symphony of color, light and form. She is one of those rare photographers capable of exploring the many facets of documentary photography and poetic, intuitive color composition. Originally from Cuxhaven, Germany, she worked in Paris under the mentorship of Gisèle Freund, and in New York with David LaChapelle, before settling in Berlin. Her new series, based on her book Plein Soleil, is a colorful study of form and light that transcends the boundaries of her two previous projects. With A Trilogy (2017), she began a transformative exploration, trading in the constraints of traditional photography for the depths of abstraction. With Cut Outs (2021), she confronted colored, transparent paper with the heat of intense sunlight, which eventually deformed and curved, casting unexpected shadows.

CAPTIVATING IMAGES

Plein Soleil is composed like "architectural models". This brilliant colorist creates minimalist compilations of reality, filled with "vital energy". As usual, she keeps to an economy of means, using rectangular and square colored papers, textured surfaces and the twinkling light of the sun.
" The interplay of light and shadow, combined with the meticulous arrangement of shapes, invites the viewer to get lost in the spellbinding dance of colors and forms ," explains Christiane Stahl, who signs the book's afterword. " She opens herself to the unknown and creates images so light and playful that they cannot be born of reason; they are optimistic, luminous, vibrant and light, with a life-affirming energy. "

MULTIPLE INSPIRATIONS

Jessica Backhaus draws inspiration for her spatial structures with their exhilarating, invigorating geometric forms from music, dance, film and, above all, painting. She draws on the abstract canvases of Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Clyfford Still, the organic forms of Jean Arp and Joan Miró, Bauhaus artists such as Oskar Schlemmer and Vassily Kandinsky, and Yves Klein's ultramarine blue, which for her is "the basis of everything".

Christiane Stahl rightly points out that the German photographer doesn't draw with colors: she sculpts them. " There is no attempt at simplification here; on the contrary, the autonomy of the photographed color is explored, forever freed from the constraints of the subject. "
In a career spanning almost thirty years, Jessica Backhaus has published ten books and exhibited her work around the world, notably in France at the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles, the Goethe-Institut in Nancy and the Maison de la photographie in Lille.

JESSICABACKHAUS.NET

PLEIN SOLEIL BY JESSICA BACKHAUS,
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY CHRISTIANE STAHL
ÉDITIONS KEHRER VERLAG, 2024