Kary H. Lasch (1914 – 1993) born ''Kary Hermann Arthur Wilhelm Lasch'' on 1 February 1914 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

died 27 August 1993 in

Danderyd Danderyd Municipality (''Danderyds kommun''; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

) was a photographer who based his international model scouting network in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. He is known for his photographs of famous people like

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

Sofia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest female star ...

, and

Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...

. Kary Lasch visited the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

consecutively for thirty years. He also did covers for major international magazines like EPOCA of Italy,

Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...

and many others. His humorous pictures are plentiful but less known.''Kary H Lasch – The Golden Years'', biography published by ''Booxencounters, Stockholm, Sweden, 2021''

Photography

As a photographer, Kary H. Lasch was mainly known as a model photographer. He was famous for delivering models and starlets to the world's publications, fashion, and film industries. Few are aware of his profession's wide range and scope: fashion, racing cars, bullfighting, art, travel, and industrial photography, to mention just a few. He loved to travel and could be on the road for eight to 10 months yearly. He traveled impulsively wherever his nose pointed: "I have not been to South America, or maybe Nepal is better." He traveled worldwide using business cards on which the Lufthansa boss had written, "Help Kary H. Lasch with everything he needs." Photography was a tool for meeting people; he carried four address books full of telephone numbers and places. He appeared in ads for

Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist- ...

as a master photographer and had his pictures on the cover of large magazines worldwide.

Lennart Nilsson Lennart Nilsson (24 August 1922 – 28 January 2017) was a Swedish photographer noted for his photographs of human embryos and other medical subjects once considered unphotographable, and more generally for his extreme macro photography. He ...

Sune Jonsson Olov Sune Jonsson (20 December 1930 – 30 January 2009) was a Swedish documentary photographer and writer, recipient of the Hasselblad Award in 1993. Jonsson was born in Nyåker outside Nordmaling in the province of Västerbotten, Sweden. After ...

, and Kary Lasch performed workshops together and traveled around the country for many years in Sweden. "C'est un artiste! Un maître!"

replied, after he had seen Lasch's images of bullfighting.

Family

Lasch was apparently a photobomber in his early age. In the 1920s, in the light of French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue and "

La Belle Époque LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

" a high standard of living, and the Industrial Revolution, his family apparently adopted all the ingredients. They lived in Prague and had a mansion in

Kutná Hora Kutná Hora (; medieval Czech: ''Hory Kutné''; german: Kuttenberg) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. The centre of Kutná Hora, including the Sedlec Abbey and its ossuary, was designa ...

(Kuttenberg) with a tiny railroad in their garden that led to the music pavilion where they entertained the socialites. Max Lasch, Kary's father, and his Austrian wife Margarethe and family were wealthy until 1938, when the Germans invaded and ended the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic ( cs, První československá republika, sk, Prvá česko-slovenská republika), often colloquially referred to as the First Republic ( cs, První republika, Slovak: ''Prvá republika''), was the first Czechoslov ...

. Lasch became stateless without a passport in 1938 and had to stay in Sweden, where he had to create various jobs to survive.

References

External links

Publisher and The Kary H. Lasch Collection and Archive

Images at The Kary H. Lasch Collection and Archive

Nationalencyklopedin, NE

ary H. Lasch Discography 1914 births 1993 deaths Swedish photographers Czechoslovak emigrants to Sweden {{Sweden-artist-stub