Nico Jesse is a major representative of European post-war documentary photography. A self-taught practitioner whose first vocation was medicine, Jesse decided to fully devote himself to the art in the 1940s. He was exceptionally successful in the 1950s with a series of photo-books devoted to the European capitals – Paris, London, Berlin and Rome. He was one of the six Dutch photographers to participate in Edward Steichen’s path-breaking ‘Family of man’ exhibition (1955-1962).

A strong believer in the ‘humanist’ tradition of documentary photography as propagated by the likes of Cartier-Bresson and Brassai, Jesse was nevertheless a remarkable stylist as well. His best work is typified not only by the capturing of the ‘significant moment’ but also by close attention he pays to the ‘significant detail’. As a result, many of his more radical photographs show extreme fragmentation and often disorient compositions. Less interested in narrative, Jesse aimed to capture the mood and atmosphere of a place through almost paparazzi-like instantaneity.

Today, the bulk of his work is held in the Netherlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.