PHOTO:Per Bak Jensen

Per Bak Jensen (22/4/49- ) is a pioneer of Contemporary landscape photography. In his tireless search for photographic expression, he has created a number of photographic series which have established him as one of the most important photographers in Scandinavia. For Bak Jensen, who never manipulates his images, it is essential to catch a certain timelessness which, in his own words, captures “The being of places”.

By Dimitris Lempesis

For Bak Jensen it is essential to catch a certain essence of timelessness of the landscape. His photographs frame locations and moods rather than people, and his unique feeling for atmosphere and the milieu is evident. The photographs may be regarded as pauses between things and events, with the quietness of spaces separating moments, yet are still moments themselves.  He embarked on his career with the exhibition “The Enigmatic City” at Copenhagen’s Galleri Gari in 1988. The black-and-white photographs, taken with a large-format camera, cover the city’s parks, cemeteries and areas around museums and monuments. But the city he presents appears empty, distant and alienated. The photographs have an almost metaphysical dimension. Bak Jensen describes the motivation behind his work as: “When I’m photographing I remain open to the flow of shapes, textures and forms, and also sounds, as they present themselves. But how my images are composed always remains a conscious process. It can be likened to meditation in that I immerse myself deeply in the process. However, when I notice particular relationships or visual phenomena that seem to have an enhanced meaning, I use my camera to bring them into frame, to draw attention to them”. There re is something in Bak Jensen’s attention to detail and singular view of the world that is paradoxical and draws us in further. It is a photography that does not merely rely on the capacity of the medium to evoke aesthetic experience, but also stresses the idea or concept behind the image.