Christer Strömholm (July 22, 1918 – January 11, 2002), also known by the pseudonym Christer Christian, was a Swedish photographer and educator. He is known for his intimate black and white

street photography Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...

portrait series, particularly his portraits of

transgender women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

in Paris. Strömholm received the 1997

Hasselblad Award The Hasselblad Award (in full: Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography) is an award granted to "a photographer recognized for major achievements". History The award—and the Hasselblad Foundation—was set up from the estate ...

Life and career

Strömholm was born in Vaxholm, Sweden, to Lizzie Strömholm and Fredrik Strömholm, an army officer. His childhood was marked by family instability. The family moved frequently, and in 1924 his parents divorced, but remarried shortly thereafter. In 1934, Strömholm's father committed suicide. Beginning in 1933, Strömholm was active in the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Nordic Youth movement, modelled after

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

. He led one of its cells during this time, and in 1936 hoisted a flag of a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

on the

People's House People's Houses (russian: Народный дом) were originally leisure and cultural centres built with the intention of making art and cultural appreciation available to the working classes. The first establishment of this type appeared in T ...

in Stockholm.Göteborgs-Posten 1997-10-19
/ref> Over the course of his young adulthood, however, his political perspective changed; he joined the

Swedish Volunteer Corps The Swedish Volunteer Corps ( sv, Svenska frivilligkåren) during the Winter War numbered 9,640 officers and men. Sweden was officially non-belligerent during the war, so the Corps was used by Finland. The Swedish volunteers were in the front l ...

at the age of 21, and supported the Norwegian resistance movement later in the war. In 1937 Strömholm travelled to Dresden to study art under the German painter . However, he came into conflict with

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

and other

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

artists, and his stay in Dresden was brief. Strömholm was a member of

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group of photographers for subjective photography. He co-founded Fotoskolan academy in Stockholm in 1962 and was its director. Alumni of the school include production designer Anna Asp, cinematographer

Bille August Bille August (born 9 November 1948) is a Danish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer of film and television. In a career spanning over four decades, he has been the recipient of numerous accolades, making him one of the most acclaimed co ...

, and photographers Anders Petersen, Björn Dawidsson (Dawid), and Gunnar Smoliansky. He is noted for his depictions of

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

women in the

Place Blanche Place Blanche in Paris, France is one of the small plazas along the Boulevard de Clichy, which runs between the 9th and 18th arrondissements (Parisian districts) and leads into Montmartre. It is near Pigalle. On 23 May 1871, during the Bloody We ...

area of 1950-1960s' Paris, published as ''Les amies de Place Blanche''. The critic

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and f ...

, writing in ''The Guardian'', said he "is known as the father of Swedish photography both for his abiding influence and for his role as a teacher." In 1998 Strömholm received the 1997

. The award citation described him as "one of Scandinavia's leading photographers, and ..the first post-war photographer to gain international renown".

Books

* ''Poste Restante''. P. A. Norstedt & Söners Förlag, 1967. With a transcript of an interview with Strömholm, "Before the Photographs." Swedish-language edition. **Stockholm: Art & Theory, 2016. . With a transcript of an interview with Strömholm, "Before the Photographs." English-language edition. * ''Les Amies de Place Blanche''. ETC Sweden, 1983 * ''Kloka ord'' (Wise Words). Legus, 1997. . A collection of aphorisms and work notes. * ''Imprints''. Hasselblad Center, 1998. * ''Nueve Segundos De Mi Vida''. Mexico: Conaculta / Centro de la Imagen, 1999. * ''On Verra Bien''. Bildverksamheten Strömholm & Färgfabriken, 2002. * ''Christer Strömholm''. Photo Poche. Arles, France: Actes Sud, 2006. * ''Poste Restante''. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2011. * ''Les Amies de Place Blanche''. Stockport, Cheshire: Dewi Lewis, 2012. ; and Villejuif, France: Aman Iman, 2013. . Re-edited from the original edition. * ''Post Scriptum Christer Strömholm''. Stockholm: Max Strom, 2013.

Awards

*1998: 1997

Exhibitions

* ''Les Amies de Place Blanche'',

International Center for Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, New York, 2012.

References

External links

Christer Strömholm estate website
''Note: This article contains content from the Swedish-language edition of Wikipedia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Stromholm, Christer Swedish photographers 1918 births 2002 deaths Artists from Stockholm Street photographers