Jakob’s latest series, Where Ravens Cry, is the subject of a monograph by Nazraeli Press released Fall 2019. As a prototype tester for Leica Camera, Jakob has collaborated on multiple projects, the latest being Origin in Tanzania, produced with La Marzocco in 2015. This body of work continues to exhibit internationally.
Jakob’s passion in the art of the handcrafted print has led to his study of various printing techniques with a number of renowned printmakers. Jakob divides his time between Toronto and Paris.
Where Raven's Cry is Jakob de Boer's largest body of work to date, made during a two-year period over eight extensive trips to Canada's Pacific Northwest. Prompted by a fascination with its myths, Jakob immersed himself in this world to understand why a mythology comparable to that of the Greco-Roman era was birthed out of this corner of the world.
The result is a sweeping narrative: an immersive story that unfolds through fortyeight large-scale photographs, revolving around themes of life, death, memory and transformation, often fused into Jakob's work with motifs from the world he encountered. Nothing is what it seems in this work. Duality is a subtext, just as it is in the myths. Hallmarks of this region, such as The Balance Rock, a sacred remnant from the ice age, the Thunderbird's Nest, fabled as the home of the last remaining thunderbird, desolate coastlines and massive cedar trees punctuate the work. Although interjected with other subjects, such as giant totem pole faces and carvings of anthropomorphic masks, it's the recurring presence of this region's myths, presented in a centerpiece, tenfoot pentaptych that sets the mystical and cinematic tone of this work. Through this series Jakob examines a world few have seen, at a poignant time when this region faces the logging of ancient forests and the invasion of pipelines. Each photograph in the series is a silver gelatin print, handcrafted in Paris.