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Les garçons dans la rue - The boys in the street
One could say that photography, a certain photography, is a very erotic practice: this way of almost fondling the subject, encircling it, modifying its attitudes, but more than anything maintaining a distance from the idea that the camera is magic and infernal, that the disposition of the lenses and the machinery make of it an object of extreme power.
-Hervé Guibert
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CV
Jack Jacques (b. 1998) is a photographer whose work follows in the thematic and autofictional traditions of the late writer and photographer Hervé Guibert, who tragically died of AIDS in 1991. Jack uses photography to explore critical themes in the gay community such as isolation, loneliness, male image and the problems of modern-life through a romantic lens. He was exhibited in the group show Fragmented at The Holy Art gallery, London 2021. Last year he was a finalist in the International Photography Awards (IPA) Professional Film Portrait and Street Photography categories for the photograph On guard.
He also received Honourable Mention awards at both the IPA 2021 and the Monochrome Photography Awards 2023, the latter in the Professional nude portrait category. Jack is currently developing his first solo exhibition. He was first published in the book The Moon and The Echo by Pilot Press 2020, and then in a set of literary books, Beyond Queer Words, short stories and poems by Beyond Words Publishing House 2022. He was published in issue 40 of The Adroit Journal. Jack works across Europe but predominantly in the cities of Paris, Berlin, London, and Edinburgh.Awards
Official Selection - Finalist, International Photography Awards 2022
Professional Analogue/film Portrait and Professional Street Photography category for the photograph titled On guard.Honourable Mention, Monochrome Photography Awards 2022
Professional nude category for the photograph titled Les dimanches matins paresseux.Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards 2021
Professional analogue/film portrait category for the photograph titled A boy waits.Portraits of notable people
Oliver Bassett Cross - Painter, London
Photographic profile.Lucas Ngo - Visual Artist, Berlin
Photographic profile.Benny Nemer - Artist, Paris
Photodocumentary and street portraiture.Charles Edward Pipe - Playwright, London
Charles is a London Library Emerging Writer 2021/22.Sacul music - Pop musician, Edinburgh
Cover and portrait photographs for the music artist Sacul (Lucas Cusick), recently featured by BBC Music Introducing.Caulumn Andrews - Actor and influencer, Edinburgh
Portraits and collaborative work on the theme of waiting.Alexander Nuttall - Ballet dancer
Conventional and street portraiture.Professor Stephen Guy-Bray - academic writer on Renaissance poetry, queer theory, and poetics, London
Street portraiture.
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Contact - prints, image use, collaboration...
Jack hand makes prints using traditional silver gelatin on archive quality fibre paper. Since they are made by hand, the editions are strictly very limited. Prices vary on the size of the edition and the physical size of the print. If you are looking for a bespoke print please do get in touch.
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L' inspiration
Hervé Guibert (1955 - 1991)
Autoportrait à la cigarette, 1989,
Christine Guibert: The Estate of Hervé Guibert, Les Douches la Galerie, Paris and Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna.
I became a photographer because a friend suggested I bore, at times, a resemblance to Hervé. This lead me to purchase an original German made Rollei 35, the same camera which he used exclusively throughout his career. I discovered his writings, and fell in love.My hope is that my photography will continue in the spirit of Hervé.
*****
Je suis devenu photographe parce qu'un ami m'a suggéré que j'avais parfois une ressemblance à Hervé. Cela m'a amené à acheter un Rollei 35 d'origine allemande, le même appareil photo qu'il a utilisé exclusivement tout au long de sa carrière. J'ai découvert ses écrits, et je suis tombé amoureux.Mon espoir est que ma photographie continue dans l'esprit d'Hervé.
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Les mystères - The mysteries
By nature I mean here, like the naïvest realist, a composite of perceiver and perceived, not a datum, an experience.
Samuel Beckett
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Portraits
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Moments de garçon - Boy moments
Select a gallary
Ongoing specific projects
Most of my photography follows the approach of Hervé, simply documenting my life: encounters, interests, loves, instants in the street. However, I have some specific projects which have more sustained focus. These projects are in some ways more directly "political" although their origins are as a deeply personal as my everyday photographic work.
One Hundred Men 🎗️
Capturing the stories and photographs of 100 gay men who survived the AIDS pandemic between the late 1970s and early 2000s.They may not have become infected with HIV or were some of the first to be successfully treated for HIV, and so survived the epidemic in the gay community. These are the men who were left behind. In many cases they lost everyone they knew, having been ostracized from their families.Being in my mid-twenties, I am acutely aware of the disconnect between my generation and this generation of survivors. I hope this project will create opportunities for people to tell their stories and reconnection to happen
Monogamy in the gay community
Photodocumenting monogamous* gay couples of different ages and lengths of partnership.Many times I have felt under pressure from lovers or from friends within the gay community, to seek or acquiess to a non-monogamous relationship."Its more natural", "I don't want to constrain my partner, don't you want that?", "Its just your insecurities", "It means you will have better communication"....all phrases I hear often from people who are quick to accuse others of "gaslighting" - if only they could hear themselves.The gay community has fashions. In music, in clothes, in sex and in relationships. I am looking to capture the hidden unfashionable gay and lesbian couples who chose to live happy monogamous lives.*as in not a polyamorous or open relationship.
I would very much like to hear from people interested in being part of these projects.