Jacquie Maria Wessels lives and works in Amsterdam; she studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and Social Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit, both in Amsterdam. Wessels has developed into an autonomous/documentary photographer who likes to explore a topic for a longer period of time. Her subjects often serve as a framework for investigating the various social conditions and the environment of people.
For the series Cityscapes + Birdmen Wessels immersed herself in the fascinating world of tough Surinamese birdmen and made cityscapes in which typical Surinamese murals dominate. This series was on show in the Photo Route Bijlmer, an outdoor exhibition in Amsterdam (NL) and earlier in a solo exhibition at the Surinamese Museum in Paramaribo (SR).
Works of the Garage Stills series are in the collection of Huis Marseille – Museum for Photography Amsterdam (NL).
Wessels work is exhibited worldwide and is in various institutional and private collections.
In a tradition from Suriname (and now popular in The Netherlands), men gather early each Sunday morning to compete in a friendly way — to see who has the sweetest singing bird. 15 portraits of men and their birds.
Voetnoot, October 10, 2010