Christer Strömholm


Christer Strömholm, also known by the pseudonym Christer Christian, was a Swedish photographer and educator. He is known for his intimate black and white street photography portrait series.

Life and career

Strömholm was a student of art under Waldemar Winkler and Dick Beer. He was a member of Otto Steinert's Fotoform group of photographers for subjective photography.
He co-founded Fotoskolan academy in Stockholm in 1962 and was its director.
He is noted for his depictions of transsexuals in the Place Blanche area of 1950s' Paris, published as Les amies de Place Blanche. The critic Sean O'Hagan, 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 Hasselblad Award. The award citation described him as "one of Scandinavia's leading photographers, and the first post-war photographer to gain international renown".

Books