MILAN, Italy – Leica Galerie Milano, in via Mengoni 4 (corner of Piazza Duomo), is hosting the exhibit ORIGIN by Jakob de Boer, a Canadian fine art photographer, and film director/producer, carried in collaboration with La Marzocco, the Florentine company specialized in handcrafting professional espresso machines.
The project came about last Spring when de Boer visited the SONGWA coffee plantation for the first time, the seat of a non-profit endeavour in Tanzania, of which La Marzocco has been a partner for years, and which supports the local community.
The result is a photographic narrative in black and white that tells the story of coffee through the fragments of the life of this community of small farmers.
Through his images Jakob de Boer shares the journey of coffee, the primary source of income for populations residing along the equatorial belt and a beverage that is venerated throughout the western world, from the daily toil of the local community working the plantation, to the harvest of this precious resource, in an attempt to evoke the osmotic relationship between the surrounding environment and the people working the land, between the landscape and man.
“For me, the language of these images is centred on the idea that people are part of a landscape within the landscape, they are not separate from each other”: in these words, de Boer outlines the sense of his work.
Of the photos making up the exhibit – 16 large, black and white images captured by the Leica M Monochrom Typ 246 – the artist recreates, an evocative atmosphere, which captures the essence of the relationship between man and nature and embodies the enduring bond uniting the two.
In ORIGIN, Jakob de Boer, who is nicknamed “hunter of moments”, manages to give a voice to the stories of the small Tanzanian community, becomes a silent and discrete witness and restores mystery and beauty to the African landscape, which represents the backdrop of the images themselves.
A percentage of the proceeds for the sale of the photos will be donated to benefit the community in the immediate vicinity of the plantation.
Origin – Jakob de Boer
Leica Galerie Milano – Via Mengoni, 4 (corner of Piazza del Duomo)
Until 20 March 2016
Hours: Monday 14.30-19.30/ Tuesday through Saturday 10.30-19.30 – Closed on Sundays
Entrance free
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY JAKOB DE BOER
Jakob de Boer, a Canadian film director/producer, fine art photographer and visual storyteller who, through his photography, shares a desire to gain an understanding into the world around us with the camera acting as an investigative tool, a microscope.
Influenced by painters like John Singer Sargent, Vermeer and Caravaggio, Jakob spent years studying and deconstructing composition under the tutelage of numerous painters and darkroom master printers.
His work has been influenced by filmmakers Ridley Scott, David Lean and Hayao Miazaki and their use of imagery to evoke emotion and tell a story.
