The “Fundació Foto Colectania” is a private foundation inaugurated in 2002 in the district of Gracía, Barcelona, whose objective is to diffuse photography and collections through exhibitions and activities such as seminaries and conferences.
The exhibition "La tentación de existir" (The Temptation of Existing) compares two essential works of two Sweden authors of the second half of the Twentieth Century: Les amies de Place Blanche of Christer Strömholm and Café Lehmitz of Anders Petersen. They are two photographers which have the same way to understand the world around them. In the works of Strömholm and Petersen, the teacher and his pupil, is present a Nordic melancholy and a strong empathy for the people portrayed.
Christer Strömholm (1918-2002) is known for his intimate black and white street photography portrait series. For him photography was not aimed to describe the reality. His idea was that the work of the photographer starts from himself because the image is in his head and not in front the camera.
In the late 1950s and early 60s, he lived in Paris and he created his most famous book, Les amies de Place Blanche, portraits of glamorous transsexuals in the red-light district around Pigalle. He described it as a book "about insecurity, about humiliation, about the quest for self-identity and the right to live".
The black-and-white photographs, shot at night capture a lost Paris, subterranean yet lively, at a time when General de Gaulle was intent on creating an ultra-conservative France with strict Roman Catholic values. The "night birds", as he called them, worked the streets around Place Blanche hoping to raise money to travel to Casablanca for the expensive operation that would complete their gender transformation.
Strömholm like his subjects, worked into the early hours, sharing with them their early afternoon breakfasts, watching them put on make-up and clothes, going down with them to the streets as they solicited for clients. This was a sort of insider reportage based on trust and friendship.
More than once he affirmed that “Working with photography is a way of life. When I looked to my photos I see that each one is a self-portrait, a part of my life”
The transsexuals of Place Blanche led a hard life and often struggled to survive, but in the photographs, what is visible is a sense a camaraderie between the "girls" and between the photographer and his subject. Besides, Strömholm's surprisingly intimate portraits form a magnificent and vibrant tribute to these girls. His photo-essay raises profound issues about sexuality and gender. The subjects' exaggerated self-image shows their often unrealizable dreams and desires. A book of longing and desire, a true classic of postwar European photography.
Anders Petersen, a Swedish photographer born in 1944, had been Christer Stromholm’s pupil for one year, between 1966 and 1967. Then, in 1967, he started a project called Café Lehmitz, which takes its name from the bar in Hamburg (Germany) where Petersen used to photograph the late-night regulars - prostitutes, transvestites, drunks, lovers and drug addicts.
The exhibition "La tentación de existir" (The Temptation of Existing) compares two essential works of two Sweden authors of the second half of the Twentieth Century: Les amies de Place Blanche of Christer Strömholm and Café Lehmitz of Anders Petersen. They are two photographers which have the same way to understand the world around them. In the works of Strömholm and Petersen, the teacher and his pupil, is present a Nordic melancholy and a strong empathy for the people portrayed.
Christer Strömholm (1918-2002) is known for his intimate black and white street photography portrait series. For him photography was not aimed to describe the reality. His idea was that the work of the photographer starts from himself because the image is in his head and not in front the camera.
In the late 1950s and early 60s, he lived in Paris and he created his most famous book, Les amies de Place Blanche, portraits of glamorous transsexuals in the red-light district around Pigalle. He described it as a book "about insecurity, about humiliation, about the quest for self-identity and the right to live".
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| La tentación de existir: Les amies de Place Blanche |
Strömholm like his subjects, worked into the early hours, sharing with them their early afternoon breakfasts, watching them put on make-up and clothes, going down with them to the streets as they solicited for clients. This was a sort of insider reportage based on trust and friendship.
More than once he affirmed that “Working with photography is a way of life. When I looked to my photos I see that each one is a self-portrait, a part of my life”
 |
| La tentación de existir: Les amies de Place Blanche |
 |
| La tentación de existir: Les amies de Place Blanche |
Anders Petersen, a Swedish photographer born in 1944, had been Christer Stromholm’s pupil for one year, between 1966 and 1967. Then, in 1967, he started a project called Café Lehmitz, which takes its name from the bar in Hamburg (Germany) where Petersen used to photograph the late-night regulars - prostitutes, transvestites, drunks, lovers and drug addicts.
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| La tentación de existir: Café Lehmitz |
The photographs are not intended to judge, they are really close to the soul and the mood of the people depicted, they offer a glance of reality. About the experience in Café Lehmitz, he says:
"The people at the Café Lehmitz had a presence and a sincerity that I myself lacked. It was okay to be desperate, to be tender, to sit all alone or share the company of others. There was a great warmth and tolerance in this destitute setting."
The book - published in 1978 by Schirmer/Mosel in Germany – became a milestone of European photography; one of its photos was used by the American songwriter Tom Waits for the cover of his 1985’s album, Rain Dogs.
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| La tentación de existir: Café Lehmitz |
On Erik Kim’s – a street photographer – blog, we can find the list of the 10 things Anders Petersen may teach you about street photography:
- Shoot with your heart, not your brain: “I am more using my heart and stomach and I go for that, it keeps me going”, he says. “I don’t use the upper-half so much when I am shooting – it is more after when I am shooting when I am looking at my contact sheets, and then I try to analyze and put things together”.
- Create photographs with more questions than answers
- Use a simple camera
- Style isn’t something aesthetic: Petersen’s style is more related to the approach – empathic and human – he as with the people he photographs than with aesthetics.
- Be a maniac, obsessive, photograph a lot of subjects.
- Get close to people
- Photography is a self-portrait of yourself
- Focus on content, not form
- Photography is about solutions, not problems: as Petersen declares, “photography offers a lot of opportunities. For me, the camera is like an entrance to the private lives of other people. And if you are curious like me, it is a fantastic tool”.
- Keep an innocent eye, watching things as if it is the first time you do that.
The exhibition was inspiring: both the artists are original and they allow subjects usually unpopular or discriminated to find their legitimate space in the history of photography.
Federica and Carlotta
Federica and Carlotta
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