From the catalogue of Museum of Modern Arts Louisiana:
"Faith, hope and love" by Jacob Holdt
Text on Jacob Holdt:
Holdt's
role as a mediator
Jacob
Holdt’s role as a mediator and cultural commentator has been a
central feature of his activity. In 1975, he started to write and
photograph for The Black Panther Party newspaper and for the Danish
daily newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad. In 1976, Holdt created the first
of his slide-show lectures, presenting a sequence of his pictures of
America inside the rectory of the church where his father was a
minister. Shortly thereafter, he began to receive invitations from
all over Denmark to show his slide-show, which had come to be titled
American Pictures. Husets Teater in Copenhagen, offered to host the
show for a period of two months solid.
Later on the Danish daily newspaper Information published American
Pictures as a book. It immediately became a best seller. The
slide-show presentation also became a success and was shown in
Denmark to some 2,000 people every single day. In 1977, Holdt opened
his own theater on Købmagergade, one of the central pedestrian malls
in Copenhagen, where Amerikanske Billeder began an unbroken 10-year
run.
In 1978, the West German magazine Der Spiegel published the book as
a serial feature. At the same time, the book became a best seller in
West Germany. A feature-length movie version of the slide-show was
also created, which was then presented at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1981 and subsequently at film festivals in London, Berlin,
Dublin, Moscow, South Africa, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The
following year, Holdt and local volunteers opened a theatre in San
Francisco for the steady presentation of Holdt’s slide-show lecture.
From 1984, Holdt started to tour universities in the United States
on a regular basis. In short order, he became one of the most widely
employed lecturers in the history of American universities. At many
of the most elite universities, viewing Holdt’s slide-show
presentation was made mandatory for all freshman students.
"As a Dane, coming from one of the world’s
most egalitarian societies, I didn’t photograph the things that
resembled my own society as much as the things that were completely
different, the filthy rich and the filthy poor, which I’d never seen
before. It was shocking to me. And I soon discovered how this was
also a visually effective way to get my message out."
At the close of the 1990s – and after more than 6,500 slide-show
presentations, Holdt began to scale down his activity traveling
around in the United States so that he could devote himself in an
even more concentrated way to taking pictures of his friends in the
ghettoes. Around this time, Holdt also resumed presenting the
slide-show lecture in Denmark.
In 2002, Holdt started – in the United States – working with the Ku
Klux Klan. He conducted a number of interviews with Klan members
about the ill treatment they had suffered during their childhood,
with an eye toward making an interactive DVD for teachers worldwide
about racism and oppression. He is still trying to get funding for
this project. However, a movie about Holdt and his involvement with
the Ku Klux Klan has been produced.
Today, Jacob Holdt continues to present a great many talks and
lectures to students, organizations and political forums. Not only
is American Pictures continually being revised and updated but Jacob
Holdt also offers an extensive group of other lectures and workshops
dealing with the themes of racism and oppression. These companioned
with similar educational projects on his webside
www.american-pictures.com