"It isn't the camera. It's life itself unfolding." | Photographer Per Bak Jensen | Louisiana Channel

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“Today, it is a luxury to find a quiet space.” Meet one of the most renowned photographers of our time, Danish Per Bak Jensen, who reflects upon a life in photography in this very personal interview. “What I'd like people to experience when they see my pictures is a request for calm. A request for silence. Perhaps even meditation.”
Per Bak Jensen has his own way of defining photography. “To me, it isn't the camera. It's life itself unfolding. I don't feel that I create much. I'd rather receive something and learn more about myself and about living. I believe that there's something all around us. Among us is something that wants to be in contact with us. I sense something in our midst. Something that wants to be in touch with us. And the feeling that something is knocking on our door and that something wants to tell me something that can increase my knowledge of being a human being. And it cannot be described in words.”
“I know it sounds like a cliché, but I'll still maintain that the photos I take aren't photos that I take myself. It's a cooperation between me and something else that makes me take the pictures. I'd rather claim that the fundamental value of art is the spirit. And the spirit wants to contact us, but it's invisible. We can't see the spirit or whatever we should call it. But somehow, it gives us an odd desire. It gives us courage. And it gives us a life force. We have a life force given to us by something in our midst. And that could be a spirit. If that's the case, traces of that spirit can be seen in our images. I think that everyone working with images hopes so. That one can find a life force and spirituality in one's work.”
Most artists, Jensen continues, see photos as ordinary images or perhaps as ordinary reality. According to him though images like paintings and sculptures should be regarded as doors that can open.
“You can look at photos in very many ways. One way is to look at them as windows to the world. The viewers of the image, along with the photographer, can look through the window that's been opened. Others say that one can look at a picture as if it were a mirror. What you see and what attracts your attention is something that's inside of you because the image that's been taken has something to do with what's inside you. When you look at my photos, you'll find something that somehow reminds you of yourself in them.”
“I prefer photography in colour, but I'm afraid of colours because colours can be seductive. Colours can deceive me. Sometimes I'm lured into taking photos because of the colours. Instead of what's behind the colours.”
Being 73 years of age and having survived a period with cancer, Per Bak Jensen, at the end of the interview, reflects that every photographer has a limited number of pictures inside him and should not exceed this quota. Also, he sees death as a part of life that should be addressed instead of ignored: “People probably react differently to not being middle-aged and that there are fewer photos in the future and many more in the past. The idea of mortality and that everything has its time is something you must accept. In your conversation with yourself, you have to address the fact that your life is limited and your work life is little. You have to get used to those facts. You have to call the troll by its name. Not that it'll disappear. But it will change character.”
Per Bak Jensen (b. 1949) is one of Denmark’s leading photographers and a pioneer of modern landscape photography, known for his desolate images of nature, interiors and industrial sites. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1980-1986) and was the first graduate to use photography as his only art form. His photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions. They are part of the collection of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, as well as the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. In the spring of 2022, Per Bak Jensen published his latest book Skyggens Vandring at Strandberg Publishing, Copenhagen.
Per Bak Jensen was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at his home in Vemmetofte, Denmark, in February 2022.
Camera and edit by Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Produced by: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan & Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2022
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.
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[@treuhandesign]

It’s amazing to hear people describe what you feel you’ve experienced but never known how to describe

[@hartgetzen7867]

This is a remarkably well thought out and executed interview, portrait, and documentary all in one. The way the director of this film observes the photographer seems to echo the way the photographer sees and photographs his subject matter. Both are remarkable.

[@dimitrisadamopoulos]

I read the comments before watching the video and I thought that I should give it a chance. OMG! One of the best interviews about photography that I have ever seen. He speaks directly in my soul. Huge thanks for sharing this masterpiece. 🙏

[@wylie_photo]

You know you've just seen something special when you need to take some time to process the sensations and wonder attached to it. This was quite an incredible interview.

[@EnvoyeeSpeciale-ey9bx]

It's the best interview I've never Seen ! Ce photographe est d'une sensibilité et d'une délicatesse Infinie. Il a tout compris. Il a mis les mots justes sur l'acte photographique, le regard, le choix du moment, du cadrage...de l'attention, de l'attente, et du TEMPS ! On arrête peut-être le cours du temps dans une photo mais on lui donne l'éternité et son temps à elle. Il y a une part de nous dans chaque photo que l'on "prend", il y a toute notre philosophie de vie et il y a cette communion avec les éléments, le monde et "l'invisible". On y met tout notre cœur mais c'est parce que l'on a été touché par ce que l''on a vu et qui s'est présenté à nous. La solitude que l'on doit accepter pour vivre cette communion est le prix à payer, sortir par tous les temps, le silence que l'on recherche pour rendre ce que l'on ressent est devenu tellement difficile à trouver que ça en est douloureux. Du moins pour moi. Mais quelle cadeau en retour de revenir avec des "pièces rares" que moi aussi j'attends au maximum de re-decouvrir quand je visionne pour la première fois les images. Et pour ceux qui disent que quelqu'un qui prend des photos mais ne regarde pas ce qui s'offre à ses yeux... c'est faux. Ce n'est pas vrai pour les vrais photographes. Photographe c'est un métier. C'est une philosophie de vie. Pour ceux qui le sont vraiment c'est une sorte d'abnégation. Certains s'en sortent mieux que d'autres... Ce ne sont pas que des photographes, ce sont des artistes ( les vrais), des artisans, des philosophes car ils cherchent un sens à leur vie, et ils y mettent toute leur âme. Et ce n'est pas rien. Un vrai photographe ne fait pas ça pour "gagner sa vie" et gagner de l'argent, c'est pour cela que j'estime que ce n'est pas un métier. Il devrait y avoir un nom particulier pour les personnes qui vivent la photo comme cette personne extraordinaire que je viens d'écouter ce matin à peine levée. Elle a tout compris. Merci à lui. Merci infiniment pour ce travail sur cette chaîne. Cela demande beaucoup de renoncement et d'implication. Et nos sens sont toujours en éveil.

[@SamSung-yr9wy]

Very Well Written, Thankyou 👌

[@madecine]

This has resonated a lot in my work. I see a lot of myself in him.

[@lehmanmoses]

As I continued watching your interview it became more enlightening as to what links art photographers. Some of what you revealed is similar to my inspirations, but what locked me to the screen is your description of what motivates you to seek subjects that speak to you. Very fine interview, very fine work. Continue your journey. I wish you well.

[@janelintern6969]

I really loved this video - one phrase sticks in my mind: that we are all part of one family. I watch a video by someone in Northern Sweden and she has 4 million followers!! She wants us - as many as possible - to send a message: those few words that we send in our very short videos may help someone. I think I'm going to include your message about our being all part of one and the same family. Thank you. Jane / Oxford UK

[@ashleyholstein7589]

Delightful!

[@gmze.b]

Today I just wrote about my position as an artist in relation to nature. And now I encountered with this interview. Knowing that there are other people who are searching for the same thing with you is the life force itself. It's inspirational. Thank you for sharing this amazing interview with us.

[@carlosquijano2827]

Excellent. I enjoyed very much this interview.

[@hanschristianlundholm]

Det var på alle måder en vidunderlig oplevelse at høre dig tale. Tak for det.

[@roncon1960]

This is really nice work. Thank you for sharing!

[@phiswe]

Very inspirational. It makes me want to go out there and rephotograph the world.

[@glorphindale]

Thank you for this wonderful interview!

[@harperwelch5147]

This is exactly matching what I have been experiencing about photography. It’s like a manifesto.

[@romanspataro1688]

thorough descriptions for my felt experiences…deeply inspiring 🖤

[@ivanklymenko]

Great interview, thanks for the video. Greetings from Prague (Czech Republic)

[@arjay8625]

That something is ego. Ego blinds us from the truth of being one big family. Whatever your belief system is, whether it be rooted in religion or science. One thing is consistent..we stem from the same source.

[@AbundanceMindset111]

Thank you so much for this❤

[@geoffmphotography9444]

An excellent video. I love his work.

[@EnvoyeeSpeciale-ey9bx]

Quelle justesse pour l'interprétation du noir et blanc !

[@anitchlikadze3451]

❤❤❤

[@tonyparatore888]

👍

[@GS-vb3zn]

Fascinating and lovely documentary. Congratulations on it. However… Next time you show photography work, don’t pan and scan through the photo, just show the photo.

[@Dahrenhorst]

Interesting interview, and I can relate to a lot what he said (sans the esoteric bits about a guiding hand making us taking the picture - I choose to believe that this is solely my personal decision). As an analog medium and large format photographer I still mostly do b&w. However, I also bring always cameras with me, which are loaded with color film (as a wheelchair photographer I can carry a lot of cameras with me). If a motif catches my eye because of its colors, I pick one of those, and that's the one and only reason that I choose color film.

[@junjiechen1144]

What is the name of the music at the beginning

[@thomas-markpeterson263]

What is the music in the intro?

[@olivierbolton8683]

The quiet spirit seeks to evade the Dark Force, Gravity

[@ebbelaurssoerensen3908]

Smukt og Vigtigt -

[@emilywong4601]

The medieval religious cult "the quiet" describes a doorway to the spiritual realm of existence.

[@user-my5ze3dm2s]

The life force and spirit is God that wants to contact us through his son Jesus Christ.