"Once, Still and Forever" sets out a quest for traces of time and meaning – things that once were, still are and will stay forever. Some of the works in this latest photography series by Jessica Backhaus date from her last year in New York, where she made her home for 14 years. But others tell of her radical break with the past and her return to her old homeland, Europe. The personal and cultural changes honed her awareness and caused her to contemplate the fragility of our emotions and existence – thoughts the photographer translates into her own characteristic visual language. Darker nuances come to the fore in the still lifes; picture planes splinter, hinting at powerful transformations. At 16, Backhaus left Germany, only returning to Berlin 22 years later. What was once, still is and will forever remain is the artist’s infallible instinct for pictorial composition, a deftness she continues to take to new heights. Her views of ostensibly prosaic scenes open up to us a cosmos of unforeseen meanings while evoking a mood of affectionate familiarity.

Jessica Backhaus is that rare photographer today who can capture nuances of everyday life in combination with a sensational feeling for color. Within all three of her published series, Jesus and the Cherries, What Still Remains and One Day in November (Kehrer 2005 and 2008), we witness the most subtle, yet vibrant use of color as it reflects off surfaces or embraces people and their possessions. It is color at the service of her subject, and she embraces the world around her with considerable tenderness and precision. In her most recent series I Wanted To See The World, we are totally immersed in her rippling colors as we see both the natural world and man-made structures in reflection on the surface of rivers and lakes. In particular the works from Venice offer the most intriguing palette of soft oranges, pale yellows and strange grays.

Jessica Backhaus’ book is a tribute to Gisèle Freund on what would have been her 100th birthday in December 2008. The book One Day In November is a testament to the friendship between the great photographer and a young photography student in Paris during the 1990’s. Intended as a posthumous birthday present, Jessica Backhaus compiled a collection of images that are meant to convey visually what Gisèle Freund taught her and what Gisèle meant to her. Gisèle Freund herself can certainly be considered as one of the great artistic and intellectual figures of the twentieth century. Her impact can be traced to both her photographic and literary work and to her own colorful biography.

What Still Remains is the title of a photo series made up of 65 works created since 2006 in various locations. After her first book, Jesus and the Cherries, about life in rural Poland, the German-American photographer Jessica Backhaus now pursues in this new cycle of photographs the question of why things that have been forgotten or left behind pop up in specific places and then seem to take on a life of their own. Backhaus has succeeded here in capturing motifs that exude an air both sublime and enigmatic. Our gaze is transfixed as we attempt to unravel the mystery of what makes these banal objects so intriguing. In their composed beauty and expressiveness, Backhaus’ photographs are reminiscent of still life paintings. But unlike the classical paintings depicting what were often artificial tableaux of objects meant to evoke aspects of vanitas, Backhaus manages to make time and transience palpable by framing scenes she comes upon by accident.

The Collector’s edition is available with a signed and numbered C-print inserted in the book. Sheet format ca. 28 x 24 cm. Choice of two images: ”Destiny”, "Marlon Brando". Edition of 25 each.

The photographer Jessica Backhaus has traveled in the region of the Polish province of Pomosrskie repeatedly since 1993. She spent a total of three and a half years portraying the town of Netno and its residents. She shows people in their apartments, at work, and in the untouched Polish landscape. With a sure eye and an unusual colour language, she points out important but easily overlooked details: plastic flowers and crocheted pillowcases, images of saints and lace doilies, and cherries preserved in mason jars. The pictures are neither intrusive nor tactless; she encounters people with dignity and full of admiration for the way of life of Poland’s rural population. The intimate character of the photos suggests that the German- American photographer must have developed a special relationship to her subject: In Backhaus photographs we feel the warmth, cordiality, and authenticity with which she was received in Poland. The photographers clear gaze captured the beauty of everyday details and moods. Jesus and the Cherries describes a Poland still a long way from the modernizations that full integration in the European Union will bring. Jessica Backhaus thus tells a tale of traditional ways of life that may already belong to the past.

"Jesus and the Cherries" is also available as Limited Edition: with signed original print in handmade slipcase (Atelier Dermont Duval), dust jacket with Cerata. Choice of three images: “Violetta by the lake”, “Blue Spoon”, “A Renovated life”. Edition of 25 each.

This collector's edition of the book includes a signed original photograph and is housed in a handcrafted box that incorporates an authentic piece of Polish porcelain and is draped with Cerata-cloth (Atelier Dermont Duval, Paris). Choice of three images: “Olga”, “Pink Pillow”, “Carrots by the sink”. Edition of 10 each.

In 2009 photo artist Harvey Benge had the idea of getting a group of photographers together to shoot a book in a day. On June 21st, 2010, – the day of the solstice – ten of the world’s leading photographers of today each shot a series for a book, in different places around the world. The individual concepts for the "One Day" series are as multifaceted as the work of the included artists.

In 2009 Jessica Backhaus moved from New York to Berlin. In her work, she concentrates on her surrounding and her every day life, which is influenced deeply by the changing of her place to live. To capture the daily banal motifs, to find the poetic moments which are more than the surface, is the root of her work.

Publisher: Revolver Publishing, Berlin

Edition in a box, 3 original color prints, 35,5cm x 28cm, signed and numbered, 25 copies.