Jakob de Boer’s Origin photography exhibition is on display at the Leica Gallery Milano in Italy until 20 March.
The Canadian photographer and film director captured the series during his visit to the Songwa Estate coffee plantation in Tanzania, a 59-hectare farmland owned by La Marzocco, Mahlkönig and Probat. De Boer’s black and white photographic narrative aims to tell the story of coffee and the lives of this small community of coffee farmers. “For me, the language of these images is centred on the idea that people are part of a landscape within the landscape, they are not separate from each other,” said de Boer. The exhibition is made up of 16 large, black and white images captured using the Leica M Monochrom Typ 246. The artist said his aim was to create an evocative atmosphere, which captures the relationship between man and nature. Influenced by painters like John Singer Sargent, Vermeer and Caravaggio, Jakob spent years studying and deconstructing composition under the tutelage of numerous painters and darkroom master printers. De Boer said filmmakers Ridley Scott, David Lean and Hayao Miazaki have also been creative influences. A percentage of the profits made from sales of the Origin by Jakob de Boer photographs will be donated to benefit the plantation community.
