Bill Jacobson (b. 1955, Norwich, Connecticut) is a photographer whose work probes memory, perception, and the experience of time. He first came to prominence in the 1990s with a series of out-of-focus portraits and landscapes that evoke themes of absence, longing, and impermanence. Beginning in 2005, and up until the start of his recent when is a place, Jacobson’s practice shifted toward sharply rendered imagery, most notably in his Place (Series) photographs, which distill architectural and built environments into formal, geometric compositions that suggest both intimacy and distance. His practice spans portraiture, landscape, and abstraction, consistently returning to questions about how we inhabit space—both physically and emotionally. Jacobson’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and are held in numerous public collections, including the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recent exhibitions include when is a place, Robert Morat Galerie, Berlin; Queer Lens, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and Luna Cornea, Centro de la imagen, Mexico City. He lives and works in New York City.
CV