Bizarre formations made of the eternal ice, vegetation on the most barren stone, the forest as a potpourri of diverse surfaces. The exhibition Per Bak Jensen – Humming Earth brings together earlier and very recent large-format landscape photographs. The artist uses vantage point, light and lighting to draw our attention to things we often tend to overlook in the commotion of our everyday lives – be they little textures or big interconnections.
Per Bak Jensen repeatedly applies himself to the task of listening closely for the quiet truths which he feels are to be found within nature. Are we, as human beings, capable of recognising these subtle intermediate tones? Per Bak Jensen believes we can – if we are willing to perceive and understand them. His photographs are thus testaments to an almost metaphysical process of seeking to grasp our surroundings.
Per Bak Jensen (b.1949) is among the most important protagonists of modern Danish landscape photography. Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, he was the first graduate to select photography as an independent and also his exclusive medium for expressing himself artistically. He began working as a lecturer at the academy in 1986 and continued for over 20 years, inspiring numerous younger Scandinavian artists. This alone would be reason enough to present this pioneer of his field to the German public in his first solo exhibition at a German museum.
Per Bak Jensen, Disko Bay, 2007, © Galleri Bo Bjerggaard and the artist / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
