Jasper van den Ende

Jasper van den Ende (1990, NL) is a lens–based visual artist whose photography practice expands into the realms of the urban environment. Whether he engages with the camera as a fabricated technological device or with the building as camera obscura is irrelevant. As long as it allows him to navigate the three–dimensional world by rendering his experience into a two–dimensional surface. In a world increasingly defined by visual experience, his in–depth engagement with light explores the sensitivity of the urgencies of contemporary urban living.

In his recent work Exposure Value ZER0̷, Jasper expresses his rumination on extravagant night lighting by using his own methodologies. He pushes the photographic medium to its boundaries, allowing the artificial city light to flourish untamed on the sensitive material to leave images where the mid–tones and highlights ‘overflow’—adding an indexical measure to the narrative qualities of the photograph. This unconventional use of the camera allows him to extend his human perception for unravelling lighting levels and hidden aspects of the urban landscape.

With a fascination for the contrast between the highly adaptable qualities of the human eye and the objective characteristics of the ‘photographic eye’, his aim is to explore the five most light saturated cities (Tokyo, New York City, New Delhi, Cairo, and Hong Kong) in the upcoming five years to expand his optical consciousness on artificial night lighting. In doing so, his works also shed light on the limits of visibility and representation through photographic media. Jasper graduated Cum laude on the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam with an Honours degree and was nominated for the Drempelprijs (Threshold Award).