ENTRY DESCRIPTION
It is an intriguing thought, that every person on the planet is connected in the sixth degree. The idea first surfaced in 1929, when Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story called “Chains”. The new ways of communicating and travelling meant that the world shrank, and all of a sudden having acquaintances in other parts of the world became more common. Karinthy wrote about how you could point to a complete stranger on the other side of the planet, and by having someone you knew introducing you to their acqauintances, it would be possible to reach the stranger through no more than six levels of connections, by virtue of chains of friends. The idea of chains of friends form the basis of my photography project ”Six Degrees of Copenhagen”. I do not apply the idea of six degrees in any scientific way. Instead, it is a way of work that magically enables me to travel through the city and meet its inhabitants. Each of the persons portrayed in “Six Degrees of Copenhagen” is part of a chain of friends.
The set up is that I portray random people that I engage with on the streets. These chance meetings end up with me taking personal photos of the people I meet - in their homes. At the end of each session, my subjects then send me to another person in their network. I then go portray these acqaintances, who then in turn give me the name of yet another person. And so on and so forth

AUTHOR


In place of the traditional word "portrait" to describe his black & white photographs of anonymous strangers, Jens Juul prefers to attach the word “portrayal.”

From a semantics perspective it may seem a subtle nuance, but in truth, Juul’s photography is a collective visual statement "portraying" the human condition intertwined at its most vulnerable points of truth. Blunt, almost savage, in their revelations and vulnerability, Juul’s images blur the lines between documentary, environmental portraiture, and fine art references.

Trained as a painter at Billedskolen in Copenhagen and New York Arts Students League, as well as being trained as portrait painter by the Spanish artist Artero Wiismundo, Juul transitioned from painting to pursue formal photographic training at Copenhagen’s Technical College where he graduated from in 2012. Due to this education he acquired a range of technical skills, that are important when you work with a camera and all the related equipment modern photography offers. But he realized it was going to take a different set of skills if he was to accomplish portraying.

“Making a good portrait is not about having the right equipment; it’s about having the right attitude. It’s 98% psychology and 2% artistic skills. What makes me able to take the pictures that I do is not so much the equipment I bring, but my ability – and desire! – to speak, ask questions, and do a lot of listening.”

back to gallery