Once, Still & Forever

In her new series Jessica Backhaus sets out a quest for traces of time and meaning--things that once were, still are, and will stay forever. Some photographs date from her last year in New York, where she had lived for fourteen years, others tell of her radical break with the past and her return to her homeland in Europe. The personal and cultural changes 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, hinting at powerful transformations.