Jacob Holdt
The first solo exhibition with V1 Gallery in the Fall of 2019, Pray for America presented 45 selected photographs from Jacob Holdt’s archive of more than 15.000 photographs, shot during his vagabonding years in America between 1970-1978. An inquisitive, beautiful, occasionally disturbing yet always compassionate journey into the back alleys and slums of America.
Refusing to pick up the mantle of pastor from his father, Holdt crossed the Atlantic in 1970 and gradually discovered his own way of preaching universal love, not within the confines of his Father’s church in the village of Faaborg, but on the road in America: “I doubt that there is any other country in the world where I could arrive with only $40 and travel for five years entirely as a result of people’s hospitality and generosity. I have stayed in 434 homes in 48 states... My parents sent a camera for my birthday so that I could “prove” the many shocking things I wrote about. It was a cheap half-frame camera that didn’t demand much skill from one who had never photographed before.”
Looking both backwards, into the history of oppression, racism and sexism, and simultaneously gazing into the future,the pictures seem, at times, prophetic. They are not just about America, but the Western world’s dreams and nightmares in a late capitalist age of upheaval. To aim at the perpetuation of memories means, inevitably, that Holdt has undertaken the task of continually renewing, of creating, cultural memoirs. The visual testimonies are above all an invitation for us to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to pray for America.
Born 1947 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark
EDUCATION
1965
Krogerup Højskole, Denmark
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Pray for America, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2015
American Pictures, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK
2014
American Pictures, Bad News at Black Bear Bar, New York, US
2011
Faith, Hope & Love, Brandts, Odense, DK
2010
Tro, Håb og Kærlighed, ARoS Museum of Modern Art, Aarhus, DK
2009
Tro, Håb og Kærlighed, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, DK
United States 1970-1975, Kunsthal Rotterdam, NL
American Pictures 1970-1975, Musee Nice, FR
2008
American Pictures 1970-1975, Espace Hermine, FR
The Ghetto in our Hearts, Globus 1 as part of Global City, Aarhus, DK
American Pictures 1970-1975, CAN Centre national de l´Audiovisuel, LU
USA 1970-1975, Langhans Galerie Praha, CZ
2007
United States 1970-1975, Photoforum PasquArt, CH
The Ghetto in our Hearts, Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, DK
Amerikabilder 1970-1975, Museum Folkwang, Essen, DE
American Pictures 1970-1975, Galerie du Théatre, La Passerelle, FR
American Pictures, CAP, Centre atlantique de la Photographie, FR
2006
American Pictures, Pôle Image Haute-Normandie, FR
American Pictures, La Galerie de La Filature, FR
2005
Contemporary Art Museum, Chicago, US
2001
Earth is a sinful song, The Round Tower in Copenhagen, DK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
V1 XX - Twenty years of V1 Gallery, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
MINE IV, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2019
MINE III, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2018
MINE II, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2017
MINE, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
Paris Photo, V1 Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, FR
2013
Gestures, V1 Gallery, Volta9 Basel, Switzerland
2012
Tonight We Won’t Be Bored, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2011
4. Fotofestival, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, DE
What´s He Building In There?, Fuse Gallery, New York, US
Status – Somewhere Between Position and Condition, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK
2010
Social Documents 1970-1975, Museum für Photographie, DE
2008
American Pictures 1970-1975, Savignano Immagini Festival, IT
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008, Deutsche Börse Group, DE
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008, C/O Berlin, DE
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008, The Photographers’ Gallery, DE
2006
L’été photographique de Lectoure 2006, Centre de photographie de Lectoure, FR
Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Roveret, IT
2005
Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist´s Eye, Hayward Gallery, UK
Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist´s Eye, Museum of Contemporary Art, US
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tro, Håb og Kærlighed. Gyldendal 2009
Jacob Holdts Amerika 1970-75, Steidl, 2007
Amerikanske Billeder, Per Kofod, 1992
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