“Con te” – solo show by Jacob Aue Sobol

Jacob Aue Sobol was born in Denmark (1976) and grew up in the southern suburbs of Copenhagen. After moving from Canada to Greenland to Tokyo, in 2008 he returned to Denmark, where he now lives and works.
He studied at European Film College and was subsequently admitted to Fatamorgana, a Danish school of art photography. Here he developed a unique and expressive style, characterized by the use of black and white. His images tell of emotions and sharing. The presence of the artist is recognizable in his shots as much as his distinctive aesthetic traits, which see whites violently detach themselves from blacks, eliminating any trace of half tones. The use of black and white is, in fact, useful for the artist to directly reach the essential questions, eliminating the specificities of space and time, thus making the images autonomous. The photographer seems to immerse himself both stylistically and psychologically within his subjects.
From the first moment, Sobol’s work seems to take on the role of a documentary diary, which tells of the artist’s ability to connect with the situations he speaks of. His stylistic trait then fits into the tradition of the Nordic photography school, born with Christer Strömholm and continued with Aders Petersen. This derivation is not limited to the use of black and white but also finds correspondence in the attention to life and relationships that the photographer manages to establish with the different realities that he documents. It is therefore possible to speak of a personal and intimate approach to photography.
His works are the product of his emotions, for this reason he tries to block rational thinking, leaving the composition at the mercy of his unconscious. The aim is then to create an image that can be interpreted through the observer’s imagination and emotion.