Jemma Jacques

Jemma Jacques’ two passions – anthropology and humanitarianism – are self-evident in the British, Los Angeles-based photographer’s black and white images of places and faces. Taken during several trips around the world, the tactile detail of her images accentuates surfaces and shadows, depicting subjects simultaneously realistic and mysteriously stylized. Brilliant reflections, flowing sunlight and gentle shadows evoke the soft hues of lives and monuments observed at a distance. This is the anthropologist in Jacques shining through her work, the vision of an outsider both enchanted by and invested in her subjects’ lives.

There is, however, a very involved side to Jacques’ art. The places and people she photographs are those who benefit directly from the sales of her works. Through her organization DCCT (Dreams Can Come True), Jacques uses art to support her humanitarian endeavors. Not surprisingly then, her work reflects the artist’s care for the people she photographs. Soft hues, gentle close-ups, awe-struck vistas, isolated areas of crisp and blurred detail, all intimate Jacques’ empathy for her subjects.