"Exhibition" Pictures for Discussion and Questions Jacob Gils: Landscape & Figure Photographer with a Unique Style

[Asher Kelman]

At the 2020 LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I was stopped on my tracks by the large bold and distinctive crafted works of Danish Photographer Jacob Gils.


I find his work technically elegant, highly unusual and esthetically committed in a continuous drive from inside his mind to the final print. So I commend this work for your consideration.

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“Whether turning his eye to iconic structures and landscape sceneries or to the female body, Jacob Gils creates fragmented, draped and deconstructed visual puzzles, with a strong attention to both aesthetic expression and technical detail.”

 

[Asher Kelman]

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Here you can appreciate the unusual dept and presence of Gil’s work.

Here he has blended about 20 layers of finely adjust focal planes using a Phase One Camera back.

There is slight, (or up to a meter), side to side random movement between shots!

“MOVEMENT gives visible shape to the relationship between the concrete physical movement, taking place in the production phase and the established environment chosen as content. Through the use of multiple exposures Gils generates engaging interpretations of iconic structures and landscape sceneries. At first glance these multi-point images appear out of focus or shaken, but in fact they consist of many different very sharp photographs of the same motifs, which are carefully combined to offer an illusion of being on the go – in movement. The technique invites the onlooker to come closer and discover the details, which do not fully reveal themselves from a distance. The hazy, translucent shapes created by the technique make for a photographic style that resembles impressionistic painting while still retaining all the detail of modern photography.”

Tell me what you think!

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

There is slight, (or up to a meter), side to side random movement between shots!

So that is the trick? Interesting. I thought about changing the orientation of the camera, not about changing the point of view.

 

[Asher Kelman]

So that is the trick? Interesting. I thought about changing the orientation of the camera, not about changing the point of view.

Jeröme,

I owe you more gracious appreciation!

Now I remember exactly what primed my mind for my “Paul of Tarsus” moment when I saw that trembling tree in front of me and confronted Jacob Gils work, as if I had been directed there to that exact spot by providence ......or the hand of God!

It certainly means to me, at least, that it's well worth us thinking and laboring how to exploit everything we know about building images, not merely leaving it to brilliant German, Japanese, French and English lens and camera makers!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I must add a related but totally unexpected clever technique for creating a modulation of reality. Kevin uses IR reflections i. A pond, inverted 180 degrees to bring i
Us his altered state of what’s real!

 

[Jerome Marot]

I don't pretend to have invented the technique to move the camera while taking a picture. Jacob Gils technique is a bit different, as he takes a series of pictures and combines them afterwards, and move the point of view. Using different wavelengths is yet another technique.

But all these are just techniques and need to be adapted to the subject at hand to enhance the subject and whatever message we want to convey. Jacobs Gils, for example, has relatively strong requirements as to the type of subject which can be used. That tree, for example, has a similar general shape when seen from any point around, so that the images can superpose while staying legible. It is something we can experiment with.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Just as a reminder, some cameras, like jacob’s Phase One or Hasselblad stacks images as you shoot, if you wish. Robert Watcher explores that with his Olympus.

By extreme contrast, all Charlotte’s deviously stacked images are foreign to each other, done long after the authors died and often likely without the heirs consent. But if they objected, she would no doubt cast a witch’s spell on them!

The point we might agree on appears to be that stacking allows us to explore effects of contrast, dissonance and mismatching that seems to make the brain pay more attention and so perhaps explore new meaning!

Asher