Biography

Joakim Eskildsen was born in Copenhagen in 1971. He is a graduate of the Aalto University in Helsinki, and part of the Helsinki School. Having begun to photograph at an early age, he trained as an apprentice with Rigmor Mydtskov, the Royal photographer to the Danish Court before he pursued journeys in Northern Europe for his first monograph Nordic Signs (1995), followed by Bluetide that documented a Portuguese village threatened by coastal erosion (1997). Following his graduation, he shifted his focus from landscapes towards the people, first those of South Africa the situation of who he witnessed a few years after the end of Apartheid (iChickenMoon 1999), before embarking on his hitherto largest project, in which he together with writer Cia Rinne documented the lives, history, and situation of Roma in different countries, resulting in the highly acclaimed book The Roma Journeys (Steidl 2007). He has since concentrated on documenting poverty in the United States, portraying people living below the poverty line in Fresno, Athens, New Orleans, the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, and the South Bronx; American Realities was published by Steidl in 2017. More recently, he has undertaken journeys through Cuba to investigate the changes the country is facing these years. A monograph is in the planning with Steidl who will also publish Home Works. His most recent publication is Cornwall (2018), a poetic photographic study of the county. Joakim Eskildsen’s photography has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, National Geographic, and The Smithsonian. He is represented by Gallery Taik Persons, Purdy Hicks Gallery, and Polka Galerie.

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