Tom Jacobi German, b. 1956

Tom Jacobi, born in Bonn in 1956, discovered his passion, initially articulated by chance, at the age of thirteen: photography. With the first camera he received as a gift, he experimented with his immediate surroundings: his sister on the swings, the neighbour's cat, countless sunsets. And he had no idea what a career lay ahead of him.
In 1976, at the invitation of Axel Springer Jr., he joined the renowned photo agency "Sven Simon" and took portraits of important German politicians: Erhard, Schmidt, Kohl. His talent did not go unnoticed and he was soon hired by "Stern", for which he worked until 1986, creating 29 cover pictures. As a freelance photographer, he worked for international magazines and in 2000 exhibited his first solo project "Wo Gott Wohnt" (Where God Dwells) worldwide. After returning to "Stern" in the same year - this time as art director - he dedicated himself to photographic art again from 2008. Since 2020, he has focussed on his series "Heavenwards - Famous Trees around the World", in the context of which the monumental lightbox work for the exhibition "Nature and Technology" was created. "Gran Abuelo" (2023, English: Great-Grandfather) depicts what is possibly the oldest living tree in the world. This alerce tree, hidden in a remote valley in Chile, was discovered in 1972 and dated by scientists in 2020 to be 5,484 years old. At 55 metres tall and 4 metres in diameter, it is a massive tree that stands above the canopy of an ancient forest.
In his most recent artistic practice, Jacobi explores the interplay between (large-format) photography, architecture and space. The hanging photograph in the room can also become a motif for this: Meta photography as a spatial study. Tom Jacobi received the Moscow "Photographer of the Year Award" in 2016 and has been shown in galleries and exhibition centres worldwide.