Berlin, 14.04.2014, Self-portrait on instant film

Artist Statement

 

Since 2003, I have consistently worked on

artistic portraiture, always tying this genre in

with current social discourse – for example,

on migration issues or the changing definition

of family in our times.

 

For dealing with these topics, I work with a large format camera and 4”x5” negative film and deliberately choose a form of representation that appears anachronistic: the conventional, analogue photographed family portrait.

By taking up the family portrait, I use it as a bridge between the familiar and the unknown, the sitter and the observer, to stimulate both curiosity and understanding.

 

I am fascinated both by the focussed reflection on the photographic moment and the moment of intense family gathering that develops a dynamic of its own at every portrait session and never ceases to inspire me to rise to the challenge of creating a new document of a particular

moment in time.

 

Since this analogue process is becoming less and less common in our digital age, my experience is that it is welcomed with enthusiasm by the portrayed families.

 

My intention is to create a body of work of international family portraits that reveals the diversity of contemporary family constellations and thus also the diversity of our society

and emphasizes its relevance for

dialogue and discourse.

 

 

Biography

 

Verena Jaekel (born in 1980) is a German portrait photographer renowned for her large-format analogue photographed family portraits.

Her work is committed to bringing

to light social issues.

 

In 2005/06, she won the prestigious Wüstenrot Foundation prize for documentary photography to create her work Neue Familienportraits –

New Family Portraits, dealing with the topic of same-sex parents with their children.

This work was presented for the first time at

C/O Berlin in 2007. Worldwide exhibitions, artist talks, photo festivals and queer festivals e.g. in Germany, Poland, Chile, India, Pakistan and Italy presenting this work followed and there is still a huge interest in and many requests for this series.

 

In 2009, she carried out a portrait commission

for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part

of the Gallery’s Migration Stories project, photographing members of the Pakistani community in Scotland. As in her previous projects, Jaekel chose the family portrait to explore both personal and social identities.

The project was a great success and stayed on the Gallery’s walls for nine months.

Later, in 2013, the project was presented in Pakistan in cooperation with the British Council Arts Programme.

 

Jaekel’s work has already been exhibited widely, notably at Villa Merkel (2017); Kunstpalais Erlangen (2016); Berlinische Galerie (2016); Museum Folkwang, (2014); The Scottish National Portrait Gallery (2011-2012); Goethe Institut New Delhi (2011 and 2008); C/O Berlin (2007) and Martin Gropius Bau (2005). Her portraits are part of numerous collections; for example, the Photography Collection of the Berlinische Galerie and the Photography Collection of the Museum Folkwang. She has been described as “building up a body of work that in the future will be

highly significant”.

 

Verena Jaekel completed her studies in 2004 at the Lette-Verein Photography School in Berlin. She is based in Berlin and works worldwide.

 

 

Visiting  Artist Lecture Venues

 

2016

Artist lecture

Tagung Dicker als Wasser?

Kunstpalais Erlangen

 

Artist lecture

International Summer Workshop Family Matters

Stiftung wannseeFORUM

 

Artist lecture

Gesamtschule Kürten

 

2015

Artist talk

GALERIE IM TEMPELHOF MUSEUM

Berlin

 

2014

Artist talk

Museum Folkwang

Essen

 

2013

Artist lecture

Indus Valley School of Arts & Architecture

Karachi, Pakistan

 

Artist lecture

National College of Arts

Lahore, Pakistan

 

2012

Artist lecture

Gender Salon 4

LMU München

 

Artist lecture

Hawthornden Lecture Theatre,

The National Gallery

Edinburgh

 

2011

Artist lecture and discussion

Pathshala South Asian Media Academy

Dhaka

 

Photographing The Metropolitan

Artist lecture and discussion

with Ram Rahman, Sunil Gupta & Sandip Kuriakose

Goethe Institut New Delhi

 

2010

Mentoring Close Up!

with Maren Isfort, C/O Berlin

 

2009

Mentoring Close Up! 

with Maren Isfort, C/O Berlin

 

2008

Still-Moving. Foto Film Video – Symposium

C/O Berlin

 

Mentoring Close Up!

with Maren Isfort, C/O Berlin

 

2007

My Family at Christmas time

Children Photoworkshop

C/O Berlin

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Exhibitions

 

2023

(WAHL-)FAMILIE DIE, DIE WIR SIND, Museum Ravensburg

 

2022

Photolux Festival, International Biennial of Photography of Lucca, Italy

 

2022

Counted Scotland’s Census 2022, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

 

2021-2022

Neue Welten Die Entdeckung der Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen

 

2018

Le Temps des Villes Indiennes. Trajectoires Photographiques

L’ENSA Paris-Malaquais

 

What is Love?

Kallmann-Museum Ismaning

 

2017

Dicker als Wasser, Konzepte des Familiären in der zeitgenössischen Kunst

Villa Merkel

 

2016

Dicker als Wasser, Konzepte des Familiären in der zeitgenössischen Kunst

Villa Merkel

 

Dicker als Wasser, Konzepte des Familiären in der zeitgenössischen Kunst

Kunstpalais Erlangen

 

Vom heiraten

Fotoraum Köln e.V. Atelier und Ausstellungsplattform für intern. Gegenwartsfotografie

 

DAS SIND WIR

PORTRÄTFOTOGRAFIE 1996-2013

Berlinische Galerie

Berlin

 

2015

DAS SIND WIR

PORTRÄTFOTOGRAFIE 1996-2013

Berlinische Galerie

Berlin

 

Familienväter-Familienmütter

GALERIE IM TEMPELHOF MUSEUM

Berlin

 

2014

Mitteilungen

Ausstellung  &  Partizipatorische Installation

Strahler – Raum für Fotografie, Berlin

6th European Month of Photography in Berlin

 

METRO – THE BUILDING OF DELHI

das foto image factory, Berlin

6th European Month of Photography in Berlin

 

Neue Familienportraits – New Family Portraits

Fotoraum Köln e.V. Atelier und Ausstellungsplattform für intern. Gegenwartsfotografie

 

Was war und was ist

Dokumentarfotografie Förderpreise der Wüstenrot Stiftung

Neue Arbeiten der Preisträger

Museum Folkwang, Essen

 

2013

Neue Familienportraits – New Family Portraits

PALERMO PRIDE 2013

Goethe Institut Palermo

 

MIGRATION & INTEGRATION STORIES FROM PAKISTAN & SCOTLAND

VM ART GALLERY

Karachi, Pakistan

 

MIGRATION & INTEGRATION STORIES FROM PAKISTAN & SCOTLAND

Zahoor Ul Akhlaq Gallery

National College of Arts

Lahore, Pakistan

 

2012

The Migration Stories: Pakistan

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Edinburgh, Scotland

 

2011

The Migration Stories: Pakistan

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Under The Rainbow 3, 2011

Goethe Institut

Dhaka, Bangladesh

 

Photographing The Metropolitan

with Sandip Kuriakose, curated by Sunil Gupta

Max Mueller Bhavan/Goethe Institut

New Delhi, India

 

BEYOND RE PRODUCTION. MOTHERING

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien

Berlin, Germany

 

Crawford Art Gallery

Cork, Ireland

 

2010

All my lovin’, Photofestival

Lodz, Poland

link

 

FotoTageTrier 2010, LEBEN elementar

Trier, Germany

 

Márgenes Critícos

Cultural Centre Estación Mapochó

Santiago, Chile

 

2009

Documentary Photography Award 05/06 Wüstenrot Foundation

LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn

Bonn, Germany

 

2008

Documentary Photography Award 05/06 Wüstenrot Foundation

Städtische Gallery Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg, Germany

 

Nigah Queerfest

link

Max Mueller Bhavan/Goethe Institut

New Delhi, India

 

Documentary Photography Award 05/06 Wüstenrot Foundation

Stadtgalerie Brunsbüttel

Triennale der Photographie

Germany

 

2007

Documentary Photography Award 05/06 Wüstenrot Foundation

C/O Berlin

Berlin, Germany

 

Reality Crossings

2. Photography Festival

Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg Germany

 

2006

DISPLAY Space for contemporary art

Farida Heuck/Verena Jaekel

Prague, Czech Republic

 

2005

After the Fact, 1st Berlin Photography Festival

Martin-Gropius-Bau

Berlin, Germany

 

2004

Schwestern im Westen – mit und ohne Kopftuch

Art of the cultures

Hamburg, Germany

 

„Schwestern im Westen, _geduldet.“

Project room Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien

Berlin, Germany

 

Public and private collections

 

Photographic Collection Jüdisches Museum Berlin

Germany

 

Sammlung Klinikum am Weißenhof

Weinsberg

 

Scottish National Photography Collection

Scotland

 

Photography Collection Berlinische Galerie

Berlin, Germany

 

Photography Collection Museum Folkwang

Essen, Germany

 

Teutloff Photo & Video Collection

Bielefeld, Germany

 

Stephan Erfurt

Berlin, Germany

 

 

Grants and awards

 

2018

Studio grant

Atelierbüro in Kulturwerk of the bbk berlin

in cooperation with Berlin senat

 

2015

Exhibition catalogue funding,

Familienväter – Familienmütter,

Wüstenrot Foundation

 

2013 

Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst

Project grant 2014

 

2010

Residency in Santiago de Chile

Studio Constitución 211

 

ifa- Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Exhibition grant for Márgenes Critícos, Estación Mapochó, Santiago, Chile

 

2008

Plat(t)tform08

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

 

Nominee KLM Paul Huf Award 2008

 

2007

Project/exhibition grant by the 2. Photofestival Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg

for the project Junge Väter

 

2006

Nominee Mutations 1

European Month of Photography

 

Nominee GASAG Artprice, Germany

 

2005

Documentary Photography Award 05/06

Wüstenrot Foundation