Jeff Rian

An updated monograph on the British-born artist, photographer and film-maker The catalogue of the first solo exhibition dedicated to Katerina Jebb, this book presents over a hundred photographs of the artist. The title, Deux ex machina, evokes the effect of the images created from the cold light of a machine to which Katerina Jebb grants the quasi-divine power of creation. Her collaborations with the fashion industry constitute an important part of her work - including her work for the Japanese brand Comme des Gar ons or for Christian Lacroix couture. The artist also delves in the themes of portraits and still lifes. The neutral backgrounds isolate the objects and subjects, giving them a solemn appearance. She positions herself at the border of reality and fiction and plays with the fluidity of genres: are we in front of a fashion photograph or a sacred image, are we in front of a human being or a statue?

These images of young people portrayed alone or in small groups - often seemingly unaware of the camera, or ignoring it - appear to deal with inconspicuous moments of everyday social interactions. Still, despite the lack of action and apparent evasiveness of the scenes there is dramatic framing in the works, sometimes with dark shadows, unfocused lenses and slightly slanting angles. It is as if the images capture the very moment before something is about to happen. They seem to be re-enacted scenes from a film - or a combination of memories from various films - and the viewer is enticed, or even compelled, to create a story to go along with the images. Jenny Källman juxtaposes the unsentimental with the sensitive, and the poetic with the everyday, in captivating images that roam the borderland between the staged and the documentary. Nothing is left to chance here, but nothing is claimed to be true either. The series of images could also be read as a photo-roman or as documentary fiction, displaying social rituals, unseen events, authentic gestures, the joy of friendship and shared experiences, but also anxiety and the deepest sense of solitude.