Christer Stromholm at Michael Hoppen Contemporary

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 body of work was massively progressive, documenting a marginalised group of society who did not fit into the social strata of Paris at the time. These famous portraits of transvestites depict individuals living on the periphery of society, enduring ‘the roughness of the streets,’ yet 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 while living in Pigalle, as he immersed himself in the lifestyle of these nightbirds.