Sonia, Paris 1962
Born 1918 in Stockholm
Died in 2002
“In 1958, Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm, then aged forty, dropped his bags off at a scruffy hotel on the Place Blanche in Paris, where the clientele basically consisted of transsexuals. Adopting the nightlife of his fellow guests, he managed to share their intimate moments, coming to photograph their kisses, their embraces, the radiant light of their faces, the slender sootiness of their false eyebrows, their weary bodies in the small hours. Over a period of days and months, Strömholm produced a captivating reportage in which the documentary and the lyrical glow side by side. He completed the project in 1968.
There’s nothing voyeuristic about the hot images he took, but rather a fluid, moving, carnal narrative tied to the intimacy that he shared with his subjects. As he would say all his life, “Visual intelligence consists in transforming observation into emotion.” With these images, Strömholm invented a new form of reportage, which yokes the oneiric trembling of a Robert Frank together with the surrealistic sharpness of a Brassaï, who also happened to be a friend of his.
Although a marginal figure in the 1950s, Christer Strömholm has now become a legend of 20th century photography. He died in 2002, at the age of 83, but continues to inspire many photographers.”
photos Christer Strömholm
textes Christian Caujolle, Helene Hazera et Johan Ehrenberg
2011
ISBN 978-2-9533910-5-3
Aman Iman Publishing
Vincent Marcilhazy/Joakim Strömholm assistés par Anna Nilsdotter Karlsson
Christer Strömholm
2015
ISBN 978-84-16282-15-9
Les Nuits de Place Blanche immerses the reader in Parisian nightlife of the 50s and 60s, more specifically in the transsexual community in the neighborhood near Pigalle Square. Christer Strömholm, portrayed the characters in an intimate and exuberant way, either in the street or in the hotel rooms they were living. According to the photographer, this work is about one’s freedom to choose one’s own life and identity. Over the time, those images have become poignant reminders of human frailties and strengths. The series exudes fragility and beauty and symbolizes what working with photography means to Strömholm: the opportunity to deepen into big questions of life, such as love, death and human loneliness.
co-édition Fundación Foto Colectania
photos Christer Strömholm
textes Johan Tell, Carole Naggar, Christian Caujolle
2012
ISBN 978-91-7126-174-8
Post Scriptum Christer Strömholm is by far the largest monograph to detail one of Sweden’s best known photographers and his life. With nearly 270 of Christer Strömholm’s best photographs and around 60 complement pictures, a biography by author Johan Tell and essays by journalist Carole Naggar and gallery owner Christian Caujolle, it forms something which may well come to be a future standard work within the subject of photography.
Christer Strömholm (1918–2002) was one of the most important Swedish photographers of our time. He spent most of his life in Sweden but early on made France his second home. He founded the legendary photography college Fotoskolan in Stockholm in 1962 and inspired an entire generation of Swedish photographers.
He is most famous for his depiction of transsexuals in the Paris of the 1960s, resulting in his book Vännerna från Place Blanche (The Friends from Place Blanche). His photographs from travels in Japan, Spain and the United States have also won wide acclaim and are represented in several of the world’s leading museums.
Christer Strömholm was appointed professor of photography by the Swedish government and was honoured with the prestigious Hasselblad Award in 1997.
Publié par Max Ström
Joakim Strömholm / Patric Leo Charlotta Broady
photos Christer Strömholm
textes Christian Caujolle
2006
ISBN: 2-7427-6026-1 AS 3304
Père de la photographie suédoise moderne, Christer Strömholm (1918-2002), a influencé durablement l’ensemble de la scène photographique scandinave. Son style est marqué par une grande diversification qui reflète les genres et les passions multiples d’un découvreur insatiable, témoin et complice des grands courants et artistes de son temps.
Publié par Actes Sud
Actes Sud
Christer Strömholm
2002
ISBN: 91-973787-6-3
Bildverksamheten Strömholm
Christer Strömholm
Textes Tor-Ivan Odulf
1967
édité par Rune Jonsson & Nils Dahlberg
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