Per Bak Jensen (born 22 April 1949) is a Danish

landscape photographer Landscape photography shows the spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes ...

. His desolate images of nature or industrial sites often convey an almost metaphysical impression. His unusual subjects include corn stubble, twigs in the snow or a few isolated rocks. Always attentive to angle, light and exposure, he never manipulates his photographs once they have been taken.

Early life

After completing his schooling in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, in 1973 Bak Jensen married Susanne Høj, the daughter of photographer Ebbe Høj. He had many different jobs until, at the age of 30, he began to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1980–1986). From 1987, he worked as a lector at the Academy in the phototechnical laboratory. He was the first graduate from the Academy to use photography as his only art form."Per Bak Jensen", ''Kunstindeks Danmark''
Retrieved 25 February 2010.

Career

He embarked on his career with the exhibition ''Den gådefulde by'' (The Enigmatic City) at Copenhagen's Galleri Gari in 1988, simultaneously publishing the series in book form. 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 as the "invisible" aspects of the town come over in a new, mysterious light.Rune Gade, "Et solidt fundament", in ''Dansk Fotografi Historie'', ed. Mette Sandbye (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2004), p. 402 et seq. . One of the most precise characterizations of Bak Jensen is an article by Poul Erik Tøjner titled "Metaphysical realism". Tøjner explains how Bak Jensen removed realism by revealing the unreal at the centre of everyday life. Bak Jensen continued to follow this path, producing enlargements in increasingly large dimensions. Unfortunately, his photographs fail to produce the same effect when published in book form. This is particularly true of the exhibition ''Project Højbane'' (The Elevated Railway Project) which was his first venture into colour photography. For Bak Jensen, photography is a means of interpreting the world. By choosing places and themes that are not normally considered interesting, he points to qualities in life we often ignore, for example the outlying areas of the city on

Amager Amager ( or, especially among older speakers, ) in the Øresund is Denmark's most densely populated island, with more than 212,000 inhabitants (January 2021) a small appendage to Zealand. The protected natural area of ''Naturpark Amager'' (includi ...

street scenes in ''Den gådefulde by'' (The Enigmatic City), or industrial sites and motorways in ''Fotografi some ritual'' (Photography as a Ritual). Whether in black and white or colour, Bak Jensen makes optimal use of the technique's expressiveness. He has also been effective in promoting photography. Students were keen to assist him in his laboratory at the Academy in the hope of deepening their knowledge of the art. He also conducted two seminars in 1989 and 1997, each resulting in a report documenting the discussions between artists and technicians about the potential of photography.

Exhibitions

Bak Jensen's CV, lists the following exhibitions:"Per Bak Jensen", ''Kunst.dk''
. Retrieved 24 February 2010. *“Per Bak Jensen 1981”, Galleri Image,

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

(1981) *“Per Bak Jensen 1985”, Galleri A Gruppen,

(1985) *“Den Gådefulde By”, Galleri GARI, Copenhagen (1988) *“Per Bak Jensen 1989”, Fotomuseet Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense (1989) *“Projekt Højbanen”, Nørrebro Station, Copenhagen (1990) *“Amagerbilleder”, Traneudstilling Gentofte Kunstbibliotek, Gentofte (1991) *“Nye fotografier”, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (1992) *“Stedernes Væsen”, Louisiana,

Humlebæk Humlebæk is a town within the municipality of Fredensborg in North Zealand in Denmark, approximately 35 km north of Copenhagen. Humlebæk is located at the shore to Øresund and has a population of 9,758 (2022).

(1993) *“Politikkens Tryk”, Politikens Galleri, Copenhagen (1995) *“Pilgrimsbilleder”, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Loggia, Copenhagen (1996) *“Fremdragninger”, Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Ishøj (1997) *“Fremdragninger”, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum,

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

(1998) *“New Zealand”, Sarjeant Galleri,

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(1998) *“Gennemstrejf”, Stalke Galleri, Copenhagen, (1999) *“Omgivelse”, Vestsjællands Kunstmuseum,

Sorø Sorø () is a town in Sorø municipality in Region Sjælland on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in east Denmark. The population is 7,999 (2022).

(2000) *“Omgivelse”, Sønderborg Slot, Sønderborg (2000) *“Pure Nature”, Galleri von Bartha, Basle,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(2000) *“Per Bak Jensen”, Galleri Niklas von Bartha,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(2001) *“Forseelse”, Herning Kunstmuseum,

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Kolding (2003) *”Figur og landskab” Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen (2004)

Books by Bak Jensen

*''Stedernes Væsen. The Being of Places.'' Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1993. *''Hengivne Øjeblikke,'' Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2001. *''Forseelse.'' Forlaget Bjerggaard, 2002.

Awards

* Eckersberg Medal (2005) * Thorvaldsen Medal (2015)

References