Who I am , where I was born, educated - or not, where I live,
what are my personal likes and dislikes, what do I look like,
Do I have an ART education, how old am I, etc., etc.,
is of no importance.
The only thing that matters is what YOU - the viewer of my images
FEEL and THINK when you look at my work.
The "Artist Statement" is a relatively new "invention",
mainly by and for the benefit of galleries, museums and those who
make a living by selling or criticizing the works of artists.
I see no reason to influence your thinking or feelings about my work
by priming you with psychological statements as to why my subconscious
influence me
- or not - to shoot and create my images the way I do.
However, I've been told that some of my images give the viewer the
"wrong" impression
- and I am constantly asked "why" and "where"
my images come from
- especially those that involve religion and sexual control of women.
So - a few things about myself.
I was born in Sweden.
That's where my basic values about women's role in society, their
"worth" and "capacity" were formed
- as well as my conception about nudity and sexuality.
I grew up "making" music - from the age of six when my mother
realized I was "gifted" with a good ear.
When the other kids were out throwing rocks at the streetlights, I
was rehearsing or performing.
Photography was always "second fiddle" to that but something
that was interesting and mysterious.
At the age of twenty-one I was living a good, comfortable, mostly
carefree life
and as happens in most young mens life, Love struck - hard - not for
the first time - but this time with a sledge hammer.
Eight months later that love was taken away on a Sunday while I was
doing nudes of a couple of friends.
Upon the return back home to our apartment I discovered my love, Neeta,
dead in our bed.
That day the music and the photography died. I eventually left Sweden
and started a new life.
And you forget - but you never forget
- the memories and what happened are always with you
and it changes your life in ways you can never imagine before such
an event.
I have never again played any of the instruments I had played for
so many years
and I didn't do photography for many years - snaps, yes, but nothing
"serious".
I still had cameras - loved the "feel" of them - such precise
and beautiful instruments - but my mind said "No".
Then a friend asked my to do some images of his daughter as she aspired
to become a model
- I took five rolls of Tri-X (what else)
and when looking at the resulting images on the contact sheets
I realized photography was what I should have done all my life
- and that I had finally broken loose from the chains of pain.
So, here I am,
starting a new life, trying to share what my mind "sees".
M y values and appreciation of the beauty that is always around us
if we just take the time to look and "see".
The beauty of women - these mysterious - at least to us men
- baffling, extraordinary, lovely and remarkable creatures
- capable, strong - much stronger mentally than us men
- creatures who thru centuries always have been - and still are -
all too often - victims.
Controlled and held back and used for pleasure by men in the name
of religion
- and to cover up the inadequacies and fears of men
- they are still controlled, mutilated, sold, used as commodities.
Obscene beyond words
- especially when it's done to young girls in the name of religion
- something which happens every day all around the world.
Although I try to show the beauty that exist in every woman,
some of my images are commentaries on this obscene condition under
which somany women live
- and those images are the ones that confuse some viewers.
Christer