A Way of Life – Swedish Photography from Christer Strömholm until Today

This spring Moderna Museet is focusing on photography. Over 300 photographs by 29 photographers are included in the exhibition A Way of Life – Swedish photography from Christer Strömholm until Today. From trailblazing Strömholm, via influential names such as Anders Petersen, Tuija Lindström, Nina Korhonen and Kenneth Gustavsson, to three younger contemporary photographers. The basis for A Way of Life is Moderna Museet's extensive collection, and focus lies on the intimate and subjective tendencies of Swedish photography, along with a few foreign examples strongly connected with Sweden. The exhibition displays, by diversity and depth, many different ways of life.

Christer Strömholm (1918–2002) is a predominant figure of Nordic photography and has inspired generations of young photographers. His images of the transsexuals of Place Blanche in Paris is some of his most known work.

Included in the exhibition are photographers that have followed in the footsteps of Strömholm. Works, taken from the Moderna Museet collection, by for example Yngve Baum, Agneta Ekman, Ann Christine Eek, Gunnar Smoliansky and not least Anders Petersen, who has most prominently carried on the Strömholm legacy.

– This is an exciting exhibition not only due to its extensive selection but also because we are experimenting with intersecting three separate exhibitions into one entirety, says John Peter Nilsson, Director of Moderna Museet Malmö.

The exhibition also highlights three contemporary photographers. JH Engström (b. 1969) has been seen as a successor to Christer Strömholm and Anders Petersen, and his Tout va bien is the newest series to be featured.

Anna Clarén (b. 1972) is just like Engström part of a generation of photographers that emerged in the late 1990's. In her bright colour photographs we meet people and spaces close to the photographer. Martin Bogren (f. 1967) is the third contemporary, he is active in Limhamn and his series Lowlands (2011) tells a personal tale, in black and white, about a small village in the Skåne countryside.

– It's fantastic to be able to show an important part of Swedish modern photography history using the Moderna Museet collection. Martin Bogren, Anna Clarén and JH Engström are all three contemporary photographers that are good examples of how strong and exciting the Nordic photography scene is right now, says Anna Tellgren, curator of the exhibition.

The title of the exhibition comes from a quote taken from a lecture by Christer Strömholm. He explains that "...for me, working with photographic images is a way of life. When I think of it, and when I look carefully at my images, all of them, each in its particular way, are nothing but self-portraits, a part of my life". That approach has shaped all photographers represented in the exhibition. Several self-portraits, portraits of friends and some portraits of Christer Strömholm can be found in the selection.

Featured photographers: Yngve Baum, Martin Bogren, Stina Brockman, Anna Clarén, Dawid, Ann Christine Eek, Agneta Ekman, JH Engström, Nan Goldin, Neil Goldstein, Catharina Gotby, Denise Grünstein, Kenneth Gustavsson, Walter Hirsch, Gerry Johansson, Rune Jonsson, Eva Klasson, Nina Korhonen, Tuija Lindström, Anders Petersen, Håkan Pieniowski, Marco Plüss, Inta Ruka, Ulf Simonsson, Gunnar Smoliansky, Christer Strömholm, Lars Tunbjörk, Odd Uhrbom, John S. Webb

Curator: Anna Tellgren, curator of photography, Moderna Museet.

With support from: E.ON

Christer Strömholm is one of the great personalities of Swedish photography. Born in Stockholm, he discovered photography via graphic art in the late 1940s. His photographs from this period are hard black-and-white compositions featuring walls, shadows and minimalist settings. During his sojourns in Paris in the 1950s and 60s, he developed a style reminiscent of street photography, and this is also where he produced his famous portraits of transsexuals at Place Blanche. Strömholm also went on numerous photographic expeditions to places around the globe in the early 1960s, including Spain, Japan, India and the USA. Early in his career, he began teaching at Kursverksamheten in Stockholm, and his classes eventually became the legendary Fotoskolan, from which some 1,200 students graduated between 1962 and 1974. Strömholm’s photographs and methods have inspired many generations of Swedish photographers, but he did not become known to the broader public until 1986, with the major exhibition 9 Seconds in My Life at Moderna Museet.

A Way of Life –
Swedish Photography from Christer Strömholm until Today

artist/s:
Yngve Baum, Martin Bogren, Stina Brockman, Anna Claren, Dawid, Ann Christine Eek, Agneta Ekman, JH Engström, Nan Goldin, Neil Goldstein, Catharina Gotby, Denise Grünstein, Kenneth Gustavsson, Walter Hirsch, Gerry Johansson, Rune Jonsson, Eva Klasson, Nina Korhonen, Tuija Lindström, Anders Petersen, Hakan Pieniowski, Marco Plüss, Inta Ruka, Ulf Simonsson, Gunnar Smoliansky, Christer Strömholm, Lars Tunbjörk, Odd Uhrbom, John S. Webb ...

curator/s:
Anna Tellgren