In 1997, I ended my career as a fashion photographer and devoted myself to freelance artistic photography.
I developed a process for digitally transforming photographic images, still shot on classic negative film.
The effect: the original forms dissolve.
Large color fields emerge that appear slightly blurred.
The digital file is then exposed to light-sensitive paper, which is then mounted on aluminum and presented behind acrylic glass (Diasec process) in 120 x 160 cm format or bigger.
After initial small experiments with the new technology in the summer of 1997, a serious test was planned for the fall. I still had good contacts in the fashion world, so I was able to book one of the models from the „Marilyn“ modeling agency in Paris for a test.
The model was Katia Mechtcherikova from Moscow, a Russian who had come to Paris shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
We flew to Nice on October 4, 1997, and went to St. Paul de Vence, where my brother-in-law owned a villa with a large pool.
This is how the „Swimming Pool“ series was created, in and around the pool on a sunny late summer day on the Cote d’Azur.
C-print behind acrylic glass, format 120 x 160 cm.
The series was first exhibited at Schloss Elmau in the summer of 1998 (the hotel is well known for the G7 Summit 2015) and at the Belenky Gallery in New York in spring 1999 (see Exhibitions).
„Katia 13“, SWIMMINGPOOL, St. Paul de Vence, 1997, Photo: Holger Jacobs
–
„Katia 12″, SWIMMINGPOOL“, St. Paul de Vence, 1998, Photo: Holger Jacobs
–
„Katia 4“, SWIMMINGPOOL, St. Paul de Vence, 1997, Photo: Holger Jacobs
–
„Katia 11“, SWIMMINGPOOL, St. Paul de Vence, 1997, Photo: Holger Jacobs
–
„Katia 8“, SWIMMINGPOOL, St. Paul de Vence, 1997, Photo: Holger Jacobs
–
„Katia 10“, SWIMMINGPOOL, St. Paul de Vence, 1997, Photo: Holger Jacobs