B. 1976 in COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
EDUCATION
1998-1999 FATAMORGANA - THE DANISH SCHOOL OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY
1997-1998 THE EUROPEAN FILM COLLEGE
Member of MAGNUM PHOTOS
Jacob Aue Sobol was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1976. A photographer and member of Magnum Photos, he has published several monographs of his unique, expressive style of black-and-white photography and exhibited his work widely. His images focus on the universality of human emotion and the search for love within oftentimes harsh surroundings.
Jacob lived in Canada from 1994-95 and Greenland from 2000-2002. In Spring 2006 he moved to Tokyo, living there 18 months before returning to Denmark in August 2008. He has traveled extensively in the years since, photographing in Siberia, Thailand, Mongolia, America, and China while staying based in Copenhagen.
After studying at the European Film College, in 1998 Jacob was admitted to Fatamorgana, a Danish school for documentary and art photography. In the autumn of 1999 he went to live in the settlement Tiniteqilaaq on the East Coast of Greenland. Over the next three years, he lived mainly in this township with his Greenlandic girlfriend Sabine and her family, living the life of a fisherman and seal hunter but also photographing. The resulting book "Sabine" was published in 2004.
In the summer of 2005, Jacob traveled with a film crew to Guatemala to make a documentary about a young Mayan girl’s first journey to the ocean. The following year he returned by himself to the mountains of Guatemala, where he met the indigenous Gomez-Brito family. He stayed with them for a month to tell the story of their everyday life. The series won first prize in the Daily Life category of World Press Photo in 2006.
In 2006 he moved to Tokyo and during the next two years, he created the images for the book "I, Tokyo," which was awarded the Leica European Publishers Award in 2008.
Following his time in Tokyo, Jacob worked extensively in Bangkok, resulting in the 2016 book "By the River of Kings." In 2012 he began photographing along the Trans-Siberian Railroad and spent the next five winters photographing in the remote Russian province of Yakutia for his project "Road of Bones." He has ongoing projects in Denmark ("Home") and the United States ("America").
2019 By The River Of Kings, Street Photo Milan, Italy
2019 With and Without you, SAK museum, Denmark
2018 With and Without You, 6x7 Warsaw Leica Gallery, Poland
2018 America, Unseen festival, Netherlands
2018 With and Without You, Wouter Van Leeuwen, Netherlands
2018 Arrivals and Departures, Haute Photographie Rotterdam, mc2 and Galerie Wouter Van Leeuwen, Netherlands
2018 Sabine, Polka Galerie, France
2017 With and Without you, Banja Rathnov Galleri & Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017 With and Without you, Rencontres d'Arles, France
2017 Road of Bones, Photo London, UK
2016 By The River Of Kings, Polka Galerie, Paris, France
2015 Sabine, Lianzhou Foto, China
2015 I, Tokyo, Polka Galerie, Paris, France
2015 Arrivals and Departures, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, USA
2015 Arrivals and Departures, Silencio, Paris, France
2015 Veins, (w/ Anders Petersen), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
2015 Veins, (w/ Anders Petersen), Salvador, Brasil
2015 Veins, (w/ Anders Petersen), Curitiba, Brasil
2015 Arrivals and Departures, Sète Festival of Photography, France
2015 Arrivals and Departures, Galleri Naboløs, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Denmark
2015 L’Intima Distanza, Scalone Vanvitelliano, Pesaro, Italy
2015 Con Te, LABottega, Marina di Pietrasanta, Italy
2015 Con Te, Mc2 Gallery, Milano, Italy
2014 Veins, w/ Anders Petersen), Three Shadows Gallery, Beijing, China
2014 Arrivals and Departures, Leica Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2014 Arrivals and Departures, Cortona on the move (festival), Italy
2014 Arrivals and Departures, Obscura Festival, Malaysia
2014 Veins, (w/ Anders Petersen), ROSPHOTO, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2014 Toujours Avec Toi, Magnum Gallery, Paris, France
2013 Avec Toi, Maison du Danemark, Paris Photo, France
2013 Veins (w/ Anders Petersen), Riga Academy or Art, Latvia
2013 Stories, Landskrona Art Museum, Sweden
2013 Stories, FotoArtFestival, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
2013 Close to You, Athens Photo Festival 2013, Greece
2013 Close to You, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
2013 Arrivals and Departures, Leica Gallery Warsaw, Poland
2013 Arrivals and Departures, Leica Gallery Prague, Czech Republic
2012 Arrivals and Departures, C/O Berlin, Germany
2012 I,Tokyo, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2011 Stories, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
2011 I, Tokyo / Sabine, Galeria Rita Castellote, Madrid, Spain
2011 I, Tokyo, Phototeket, Esbjerg, Denmark
2010 I, Tokyo / Sabine, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, USA
2009 I, Tokyo, Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
2008 I, Tokyo, Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2007 Sabine, Silo Gallery, Porto, Portugal
2007 Sabine, Month of Photography, Krakow, Poland
2007 Sabine, Gallery Sztuki, Konin, Poland
2006 Sabine, Yours Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2006 Sabine, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2004 Sabine, SUPERDANISH: Newfangled Danish Culture, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
2004 Sabine, Frederiks Bastion, Copenhagen, Denmark
2003 Tiniteqilaaq – The strait that runs dry at low tide, Filosoffen, Odense Foto Triennale, Denmark
2011 Face of Our Time, University of Michigan Museum of Art, USA
2011 Face of Our Time, SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
2011 Minor Cropping May Occur, Lombard Freid Projects, New York, USA
2009 Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico
2008 Unseen, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
2008 Discovery of FotoFest 2006, FotoFest, Houston, USA
2007 One Shot Each, Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2007 Contemporary Danish Photography, FotoFest, Houston, USA
2006 Closed Eyes, Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2006 37 seconds, The BBC big screen, the Liverpool Biennial/The BBC, Liverpool, UK
2006 World Mental Health Day, Frederiksberg Rådhus, Copenhagen, Denmark
2005 Contemporary Danish Photography, The Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, Iowa, USA
2005 Frispark, Galleri Spark, Copenhagen, Denmark
2003 Charlottenborg Forårsudstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
2003 Odense Foto Triennale, Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts, Odense, Denmark
2001 Greenland in pictures, The National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
2000 Sons and lovers, Galleri Bossky, Copenhagen, Denmark
1999 Fatamorgana Anniversary Exhibition, Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2016 The Danish Arts Foundation, DJFotografernes Ophavsretsfond
2012 The Danish Arts Council
2011 The Danish Arts Council
2010 Ragnvald og Ida Blix’ Fond
2009 The Danish Arts Foundation
2008 The Danish Arts Foundation, The Danish Arts Council, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, The Toyota Foundation
2007 Politiken-Fonden, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond
2005 The Danish Arts Foundation, Politiken-Fonden, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond
2004 The Danish Arts Council, Committee for Visual Arts Project Funding, BG Fonden, Københavns Billedkunstudvalg, Kong Christian den Tiendes Fond, Cultural Foundation Denmark - Greenland, C.L. Davids Fond
2003 The Danish Arts Foundation, The Danish Arts Council, Committee for Literary Project Funding, Politiken-Fonden, The Royal Greenland Foundation, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, The Greenland Christmas Seal Foundation, Nordbok: The Nordic Literature and Library Committee, The Danish Parliament’s Greenland Trust
2002 C.L. Davids Scholarship, The Danish Parliament’s Greenland Trust
2001 Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik's Foundation, The Velux Foundation, The Greenland Home Rule Culture Fund, C.L. Davids Fond, Qilakitsoq Foundation
2000 The Danish Ministry of Culture's Development Fund, C.L. Davids Fond
AWARDS
2008 Leica European Publishers Award
2008 Nominated, Paul Huf Award
2007 Fogtdals Foto Award
2006 World Press Photo 1st prize, Daily Life Stories
2005 Nominated, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize