Jeff Jacobson (1946 – 9 August 2020) was a noted American color photographer born in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

in 1946. He began his career as a lawyer for the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

before devoting himself to photography after studying under Charles Harbutt. A member of

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in Paris, New York City, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David Seymour (photographer), Davi ...

from 1978 to 1981, he subsequently was a partner of Archive Pictures and later affiliated with Redux Pictures.

Photography career

His first collection of color photographs, ''My Fellow Americans ...'', was published in 1991, and covered the years 1978-1989, documenting American society during the era of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. During this period, his photographs were candids, and marked by visual jokes. He sabotaged the surface level of the subject matter in the frame by using strobe and fill-flash that hyperbolized the glitz of the composition, and gave the composition a disorienting blurriness. The title references Swiss photographer

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his ...

's work ''

The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX (TV channel), FX. It aired for six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners ...

'', with the cover image of Jacobson's father holding Jeff's son reminiscent of Frank's shot of a jet-black nanny cradling an ivory-white infant. His other stated and implicit influences include

André Kertész André Kertész (; 2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985), born Andor Kertész (), was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition (visual arts), composition and the photo essay. In the earl ...

, Charles Harbutt,

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

, Danny Lyons,

Weegee Ascher (Usher) Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City. Weegee worked in Manhattan's Lower Eas ...

, postmodernist

Ralph Steadman Ralph Idris Steadman (born 15 May 1936) is a British illustrator and collaborator with the American writer Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman draws satirical political cartoons, social caricatures, and picture books. Early life Steadman was born in ...

, the Depression-era photojournalist

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

, and

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolist painting, Symbolist draftsman, printmaker, and painter. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon worked almost exc ...

. In 2006, Jacobson published ''Melting Point''. These photographs present a more ethereal view of the world in transition, from 1990-2002. While most of these images were taken during his magazine assignments, they present a more lyrical, internal reaction to the events of the deaths of his parents, returning to live on the East coast, and the startling moment the Twin Towers burn behind a bronze statue depicting the horror of the Katyn Forest massacre. In 2013, the book "The Last Roll" is released by Daylight Books. "The Last Roll" embodies the maturation of Jacobson's work, further abstracting his vision of the world, while his medium of Kodachrome film ceased production, shortly after he is diagnosed and treated for cancer. As he recovered his energy, his photographs are imbued with a new understanding of mortality. After viewing the world first from the windows of his home, he re-entered it again with fresh eyes, focussed now on the images that move him and give him strength. He has also been published in ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', and other magazines, and numerous museums such as the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

hold collections of his prints. Jacobson died on 9 August 2020.Muere el fotógrafo Jeff Jacobson tras 16 años luchando contra el cáncer

Personal style

About his visual style, he wrote:

References

External links

* http://www.jeffjacobsonphotography.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Jeff American photojournalists American portrait photographers American people of Jewish descent Artists from Des Moines, Iowa 2020 deaths 1946 births Photographers from Iowa