Curriculum Vitae

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name: Jens Jakob Thodberg
Adress: Soepassagen 14, st tv,
DK-2100 Kopenhagen OE.
Telephone: +45 3539 7698
Mobile: +45 2291 2738
E-mail: jensjakob@thodberg.com
Homepage: www.thodberg.com
Born: 1961

ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

When I take pictures, I experience a sense of unlimited freedom. With my camera, I can explore the farthest reaches of the human universe. By this I mean both the physical and the spiritual universe.
My camera is the extended arm of my memory in the sense that photography helps me remember things experienced. For me, photography is a way of living out feelings, a necessary supplement to the rationality characteristic of my job as a software developer.
I believe, however, that art and science have a lot in common as they both explore the unknown and require consistent work, if interesting results are to be obtained. The scientific working method is objective and requires of the scientist that he be able to reproduce his work and trace it back to a
chain of reasoning. Art, on the other hand, is subjective and derives substance from the artist’s emotional life. Although the artist’s work cannot be reproduced, it is necessary that the viewer be able to see reflections of his own emotional life in the work of art. Despite the differences between art and science, the two must necessarily employ one another’s working methods in order to progress.
While the artist may refuse to explain his work in scientific terms, he still makes use of psychology and systematic research when faced with the unknown. Likewise, the scientist uses his imagination when faced with incomprehensible results, something he doesn’t like to admit. I find the hate-love relationship that exists between art and science extremely fascinating. In my own work, I make use of compositional rules derived from the field of perceptional psychology because I feel that this method allows for more consistent work. Unlike many, I see an advantage in explaining my artistic work. I believe, however, that crucial decisions must be made intuitively without regard to the scientific method. Thus, although I make use of digital image processing, I feel that the most important decisions are made when the photograph is actually taken.