Jessica Backhaus

Our experiences and our emotions are essential in our reflections. I think my work is very intuitive, it goes along with my own emotions and feelings. You express yourself because there is not another way you can do it. In order to create you also have to allow for a certain vulnerability and need to be open. I believe this open field of the unknown gives my work some lyrical and poetic elements. It’s about the little things and details which I think tell a lot about a bigger picture. You can sometimes read so much more between the lines.

– Jessica Backhaus

Jessica Backhaus was born in Cuxhaven, Germany in 1970 and grew up in an artistic family. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Paris, where she later studied photography and visual communications. Here, in 1992, she met Gisèle Freund, who became her mentor. In 1995 her passion for photography drew her to New York, where she assisted photographers, pursued her own projects and lived until 2009.

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 Kunsthalle in Erfurt, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. Her photographs 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.

She has published nine books with Kehrer Verlag: Jesus and the Cherries (2005), What Still Remains (2008), One Day in November (2008, dedicated to Gisèle Freund), I Wanted to See the World (2010), ONE DAY – Ten Photographers (2010), Once, Still and Forever (2012), Six Degrees of Freedom (2015), A Trilogy (2017), Cut Outs (2021). She recently released Far Away But Close (2019) with Another Place Press.

In addition, Jessica Backhaus’ work is also included in: Women Photographers. From Julia Margaret Cameron to Cindy Sherman by Boris Friedewald (Prestel, 2014) and The Photographers’ Sketchbooks by Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals (Thames & Hudson, 2014).

Her books here
Artist website here

Exhibitions in collaboration with Micamera

A Trilogy
curated by Giulia Zorzi
24 May – 21 June, 2019
Mutty, Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN)

Six Degrees of Freedom
in collaboration with Robert Morat (Berlin)
21 January – 25 February, 2017
Micamera, Milan

Once, Still and Forever
14 February – 22 March, 2014
Micamera, Milan

Daily Photographs
1 March – 7 April, 2012
Micamera, Milan

Workshops

Daily Photography
28 February and 1 March, 2015
15-16 February, 2014
2 to 4 March, 2012
Micamera, Milan

The Colour and the Shape
special guest: Robert Morat
21-22 January, 2017
Micamera, Milan

Once, Still and Forever
15-16 February, 2014
22-23 March,2014
Micamera, Milan

Some artworks. Please contact us for further information