Introduction
All our lives are journeys, physical and emotional, and some of us travel further and longer. Rewards are given to those who embark with an open mind, roving eyes, and a tender heart. This is how Jessica Backhaus travels. She loves her journeys and the rewards are stimulation, opportunity, and friendship.
Jessica left Germany when she was sixteen to study photography in Paris. There she met Gisèle Freund who became her friend and a life-long influence on her work. Her wonderful book One Day in November is a tribute to her great mentor. New York was her next destination, which she explored for fourteen years. Freund had instilled in her the necessity to learn the craft of photography in order to be free creatively.
Photography was ever present in New York in the 80s and the 90s-in the galleries, in the museums and in the street. Photography thrived and color photography dominated. She looked and absorbed all with intense curiosity and gradually developed her own way of seeing. Ever alert, and quick to absorb changing situations, she zeroed in what was of interest to her. Looking at Jessica’s pictures, I am not surprised that she admires William Eggleston’s work. By the time she left, America had put a stamp on her vision.
In 2009, she returned to Germany where she now lives. All along she has traveled, taking in scenes, making pictures, and archiving images in her head. Her work turned more intuitive as she exposed herself to different cultures in many parts of the world. Still-lives always played an important part in her work, and even more so in Once, Still and Forever with photographs taken all over the western world. She concentrates on fragments, everyday items cast away, often reflections. Like a butterfly collector chasing beautiful specimens, she chases images. They often defy explanation but they resonate deeply. Primarily, I think of her pictures as poetic and, as in poetry the overall perception is more important than the specifics shown. It resists logical dissection, becomes a mirror of the soul. None of her pictures can be confused with travel photos, in fact they are the opposite. Most pictures never give away where they were taken. I would have never guessed that her picture of wilted ‘Alpenveilchen’ (‘Hopefully’), to me so German, was shot in Italy. In vain I am looking for ‘German’ pictures, reflecting where she lives now, but Jessica has found her own photographic language beyond nationalities. Her pictures are lyrical foremost, sometimes moody sometimes happy. Perhaps, when they are a bit melancholic they become ‘German’, as the German soul is romantic and melancholic.
The title of her book, Once, Still and Forever, suggests that she addresses the passing of time. She visually incorporates experiences of the past and synthesizes them all for the present. Her pictures are mementos of what she has experienced. She holds on to something that happened, a fleeting moment, and preserves it as an image for all to see. Indeed, a photograph is always of the past--the second it has been taken it becomes history preserved. By printing it, it takes on a physical presence, thereby turning into a physical object, to be preserved or not, possibly forever. It strikes me when looking at the collection of her pictures preserved in this book, that they become a wonderful tapestry of color, light, & shadows. Timeless.
The picture that resonates most for me, and which I think is a
signature ‘Backhaus’ image, is ‘Beyond Seeing’. It shows a mirror that no longer reflects and has gone blind, it’s frame slightly decayed, on a simple hook, on a dilapidated pink wall. I think of all it might have seen and absorbed in the past, now holding on to it, below the surface. It triggers memories when I look at it, again, and again, still and forever.
Elisabeth Biondi, New York, July 2012