Jessica Backhaus has traveled in the region of the Polish province of Pomosrskie repeatedly since 1993. She spent a total of three and a half years portraying the town of Netno and its residents. She shows people in their apartments, at work, and in the untouched Polish landscape. With a sure eye and an unusual colour language, she points out important but easily overlooked details: plastic flowers and crocheted pillowcases, images of saints and lace doilies, and cherries preserved in mason jars. The pictures are neither intrusive nor tactless; she encounters people with dignity and full of admiration for the way of life of Poland’s rural population. The intimate character of the photos suggests that the German- American photographer must have developed a special relationship to her subject: In Backhaus photographs we feel the warmth, cordiality, and authenticity with which she was received in Poland. The photographers clear gaze captured the beauty of everyday details and moods. Jesus and the Cherries describes a Poland still a long way from the modernizations that full integration in the European Union will bring. Jessica Backhaus thus tells a tale of traditional ways of life that may already belong to the past.
Essay by Monika Rydiger, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen. Signed by the artist
