This month marks the Swedish fashion photographer Mikael Jansson’s third exhibition at Stockholm art gallery CFHILL. In 2017, Jansson's intimate encounter with the Formula 1 racing world was shown in Speed of Life. Nine years earlier, Daria, The Archipelago Series focused on Swedish nature and the iconic model Daria Werbowy in a collection of dreamy black-and-white shots. Now, it is figures such as Iggy Pop, Wiz Khalifa, Katy Perry, and about thirty other stars who will occupy the premises at Västra Trädgårdsgatan 9 in Stockholm between 6 and 28 November.
From thousands of photographs, Mikael Jansson has selected 32 of his most iconic portraits from the early 1990s until today. The exhibition Unscripted Scenes shows Jansson's broad talent with everything from contemporary and colourful portraits to classic black-and-white images.
During his years as a photographer, Jansson has worked with supermodels, such as Isabella Rossellini, Anja Rubik and Christy Turlington as well as stars such as Gary Oldman, Miuccia Prada and Penelope Cruz. Celebrities wearing expensive clothes in enchanting places are common subjects for fashion photography, but luxury is not the only characteristic of Jansson’s work. He manages to capture a specific mood that allows the viewer to touch the unattainable.
"Working with Mikael Jansson is a privilege. His knack for erasing the barriers between the glamourous and the everyday, and the way he is able to so naturally enter into dialogue with timeless artistic principles jointly ensure that nobody views his pictures unmoved", says Michael Elmenbeck, exhibition director at CFHILL.
Jansson often makes subtle references to legends such as Jacques Henri Lartigue, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Paul Strand and Irving Penn. His portrait of Tatjana Patitz from 1994 is reminiscent of Paul Strand's photograph Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente, France from 1951. Patitz becomes a female equivalent of Strand's portrait with her penetrating gaze, voluminous hair and tanned skin.
Like Pablo Picasso's muse Dora Maar and Andy Warhol's favourite, Edie Sedgewick, Jansson often works with the same models. Kate Moss is one of those who has been photographed countless times, occasionally styled similarly to icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Anita Pallenberg.
For Unscripted Scenes, Mikael Jansson has created four handmade platinum prints. He attaches great importance to the production process, which results in a smaller format and fewer editions. Jansson frequently presents his work only in the size that he believes optimal for the specific image, such as this portrait of Michelle Pfeiffer from 2017.
Jansson is rare among today's photographers in that he works with advanced digital technology while creating prints by hand in the darkroom. For several years he created his own platinum palladium prints, a difficult process dating back to 1873 that requires materials more expensive than gold.
Music has been of great importance in Jansson's work. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the golden age for live performance, he captured musicians in their most ecstatic moments. After studying under Swedish photographers, Jansson traveled to New York where he became an assistant to the legendary photographer Richard Avedon.
In the 1990s, a new wave of creativity broke in the fashion industry. Jansson did not merely jump on this trend, but is actually considered to be one of the leading figures in shaping and formulating its ideals. Few fashion photographers have managed to stay relevant for as many decades as Mikael Jansson has, but his constant innovation and new ideas keep him at the forefront of a constantly changing industry.
