CHRISTER STROMHOLM
2012-04-02From Strömholm’s eminent body of work Les Amies de la Place Blanche, these famous portraits of transvestites depict individuals living on the periphery of society, enduring ‘the roughness of the streets,’ however there is a delicacy and poignancy that emanates from Strömholm’s portraits in contrast to their gritty setting. In his book of the same title, Strömholm describes this intimate collection of pictures as memoires of his daily life, taken whilst living in Pigalle, as he immersed himself in the lifestyle of these ‘night birds’.
Christer Strömholm (1918-2002), born in Stockholm, is a prominent figure in the history of Swedish photography. His pictures from the early fifties consist of sharply focused black and white compositions of walls, shadows and clear-cut interiors. While periodically living in Paris during the 1950s and 1960s he developed a style more in tune with street-photography and it was at this time that he made his famous portraits of transvestites and transsexuals at the Place Blanche. This particular oeuvre of work was massively progressive, documenting a marginalised group of society who did not fit into the social strata of Paris at the time.
Opposite – Cobra and Caprice, 1964
Exhibition runs from April 20th to May 26th, 2012
Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place
London
SW3 3TD
