Christer Strömholm

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Christer Strömholm (born July 22, 1918 in Stockholm ; † January 11, 2002 there ) was a Swedish photographer .

Life

Youth and struggle in the resistance

Christer Strömholm's father was an officer in the Swedish army . In 1924 his parents divorced. Both remarried soon afterwards. Christer lived alternately with his mother's and father's family. His father was stationed in different locations in Sweden, Romania and Poland. In 1934 the father committed suicide.

In 1935 Christer Strömholm was an exchange student with a family in Morungen and learned the German language. In 1937 he began studying at the painter Woldemar Winkler's art school . Both got into a dispute about Paul Klee and other Bauhaus artists, which led to a falling out. Strömholm moved to Paris and from there made trips to Italy, Monte Carlo , Marseille and Spain, which was shaken by civil war . There he took over courier services for the Republican troops.

In autumn 1938 he returned to Sweden to study painting with Otte Sköld and Isaac Grünewald . 1939–1940 he took part on the Soviet side in the Soviet-Finnish winter war. 1940-1945 he fought in a group of Swedish resistance fighters in Norway against the German occupation forces and worked as a liaison for the Norwegian resistance in Stockholm.

Artistic development as a photographer

After the war he developed photography as his form of artistic expression. 1946–1956 he studied at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris, combined with study visits to Faenza and Florence . He created photo reports and portraits of well-known people from art and culture for the Brazilian magazine Mania .

From 1949–1954 he was a member of the fotoform group led by Otto Steinert . Under the name Christer Christian he took part in exhibitions of the group. The exhibition “Subjective Photography” in Saarbrücken in 1951 became particularly well known .

Work topics and central ideas, 1954–1993

1954–1964 he produced his series Dödsbilder ( death pictures ), in 1956 his film Ansikten i skugga ( faces in shadows ) together with Peter Weiss . At the Kursverksamheten in Stockholm, an advanced training facility for adults, he taught photography design. Together with Tor-Ivan Odulf , he developed the Fotoskolan school from this .

1956–1964 he created his photo series of transsexuals on the Place Blanche in Paris. In Paris in the 1950s and 1960s, Strömholm began photographing transvestites and transsexuals. In retrospect, these works were praised as devoid of a voyeuristic gaze, and the special approach to the counterpart and his role-play was emphasized. Strömholm has always worked with society or with people who have made a conscious decision to live outside the norm. "They deal with their own identity and that was also the starting point of my work," said Strömholm.

During these years he consolidated his photographic principles: " Available light " - to use the available light, "Exposure moment" - the moment of the picture and "Personal responsibility" - his personal responsibility for the picture.

He bought an old ruin near Fox-Amphoux in Provence in 1958 and set up his darkroom there. From 1959 to 1963 he traveled to Spain, Japan, India, the USA and Africa. He put his pictures from 1964 to 1974 under the work topic Verkligheten (The Reality). 1974–1982 his subject was Privata Bilder (Private Pictures), 1982–1993 Tecken och Spår ( Signs and Traces ). In 1976 and 1977 he created a series of surrealistic large format Polaroid pictures .

His son Joakim shot the film portrait Blunda och se ( close your eyes and see ) for Swedish television from 1990 to 1993 .

The late years

In 1993 he was appointed Professor of Photography by the Swedish Ministry of Culture. From 1993 to 1997 he wrote his book Kloka ord (Smart Words). His work topic during these years was Golgotha .

On January 11, 2002, he died in Stockholm after a long illness. He could no longer complete his last book, I befintligt ljus - ett fotografisk testamente ( In Existing Light - A Photographic Testament ) as planned.

Awards

In 1998 he received the Hasselblad Foundation Award 1997 for photography.

Publications

Photo books

  • Poste restante. PA Norstedt & Söners Förlag, Stockholm 1967.
  • Vännerna från Place Blance. ETC: s Förlag, Stockholm 1983.
  • Picture Show No. 1 - Christer Strömholm. ETC: s Förlag, Stockholm 1986.
  • Christer Strömholm. Fundacion La Caixa, Barcelona 2001. (with texts by Lluis Monreal, Marta Gili and Gunilla Knape)
  • with Diane Arbus and Lisette Model : Arbus, Model, Strömholm. Steidl / Moderna Museet, Göttingen / Stockholm 2005, ISBN 3-86521-143-7 .
  • Christer Strömholm. (= Editions Photo Poche. No. 106). Actes sud, Arles 2006, ISBN 2-7427-6026-1 . (Foreword by Christian Caujolle )
  • Les Amies de Place Blanche. Aman Iman, 2011, ISBN 978-2-9533910-5-3 . (extended new edition of Vännerna från Place Blance )
  • Post Scriptum. Max Ström, Stockholm 2012, ISBN 978-91-7126-249-3 .
  • with Lasse Söderberg : Resa i svartvitt. Ellerström Förlag, 2013, ISBN 978-91-7247-334-8 .
  • Les nuits de Place Blanche. RM Verlag, Barcelona 2015, ISBN 978-84-16282-15-9 .

Cinematographic works

  • 1956 camera and direction in Ansikten i Skugga ( Faces in Shadows ), short film; together with Peter Weiss
  • 1966 Leading role in Myglaren ( Der Intrigant ), a TV film by Rune Hassner and Jan Myrdal
  • 1996 Blunda och se ( close your eyes and see ), portrait by Joakim Strömholm about his father

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to the artist's website, version dated December 5, 2008. In: Alfried Wieczorek, Claude W. Sui (Ed.): Weltstars der Photographie. On p. 150 it says “Christer Christiansen”.
  2. ↑ a b Uli Eberhardt: Christer Strömholm: Revealed Secrets - focused.com. Retrieved September 26, 2019 (German).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Strömholm, Christer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish photographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 2002
Place of death Stockholm