Jacob Aue Sobol

Arrivals and Departures

Jacob Aue Sobol

Born in 1976 in Copenhague

“Going onboard the legendary Trans-Siberian is a journey I’ve always wanted to make. I was born in Denmark, a country you can cross in five hours. But Russia is something else, it is a huge country!“Read more

Jacob Aue Sobol 

The Danish artist went on-board the Trans-Siberian train with the intention to be the first to photograph the daily life of the other travellers. During the 10,000 km journey between Moscow and Beijing, Aue Sobol came across one problem: the train was empty. Jacob Aue Sobol pointed the lens of his camera towards the windows and was fascinated by what he discovered outside. “The cold made my blood boil."

At each stop, Jacob took his time exploring the wide, open spaces, and the snow-covered landscapes, the Russian forests, the Mongolian deserts and the Chinese mountains. He also came across people that lived amongst these landscapes: “I wanted to meet the inhabitants in order to understand the places, even if it was only a brief encounter“.

Jacob Aue Sobol photographed twin sisters in their home in Moscow, hunters in the Ulan-Bator mountains, and hurried pedestrians in a bustling Bejing. Jacob indulged in this photographic journey, whose common thread was the railway of the Trans-Siberian.

This trip was equally a spiritual journey, an emotional investigation. Each picture echoes the artist’s fears, feelings, and desires. By going beyond the boundaries of geographical and linguistic borders, Sogol has attempted to get in touch with the essence of human emotions. “For me, what we say with words is far less powerful than what we can express with our eyes and body. An image has no words, encouters should be the same.“