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Tag archives for The Face

Camera shy they ain’t

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A model wearing Yves Saint Laurent haute couture from 1978 in Candy Magazine. Photo by Andreas Larsson.

I first came in contact with Andreas Larsson when I, together with some friends, made an independent, arty fashion publication. This was in the early 2000s and Andreas shot a men’s story for us. During that time he was very influenced by the prevailing documentary fashion photo inspired by art photography that became big in the 1990s.

Some time after that I recall him telling me that he had decided to start working with real models, mirroring the fashion world’s move towards more obvious beauty, which was a main story during the 00s.

Since then Andreas has moved up in the world, these days shooting advertising for Lanvin menswear and working regularly with Dazed & Confused, Fantastic Man, 10 Magazine, Bon Magazine. Just to name a few.

I asked him to send me a photo that he liked at the moment and he sent me this shot from Candy Magazine, a fashion magazine for transvestites, drag queens and transsexuals.

Andreas’ story is not uncommon for Swedish photographers working in fashion. Come to think of it there are many great ones from Sweden. The most successful one is of course Mikael Jansson who is one of a few elite photographers working at the absolute top level – regularly shooting campaigns for Calvin Klein and the top Vogues.

There are others. John Scarisbrick shot for legendary fashion and pop culture bible The Face in the 90s while Polish-Swedish Kacper Kasprzyk has landed both prestigious campaigns such as Yves Saint Laurent menswear and lucrative ones – this spring he’s shot the Gucci eyewear campaign. Needless to say, he also works for high-profile publications (Harper’s Bazaar, Another Magazine, Vogue Japan).

And that’s just the guys. Martina Hoogland Ivanow is as much an art photographer as a fashion photographer, if not more so. But with a Prada campaign on her CV you can’t escape naming her as one of Sweden’s top names. Camilla Åkrans is soon rivalling Mikael Jansson in stature with her work for Numéro and campaigns for Missoni and Sisley. Lina Scheynius’ soft and intimate style has been making waves for a few years now, while Louise Enhörning is another female photographer whose forte is to capture the beauty of teenage girls in a respectful way (a talent that landed her jobs for Teen Vogue).

When you start looking at fashion photography from Sweden, I think it’s difficult to say that there is a certain style. In this I think it says a lot about the restrictions on Swedish fashion when people have to sell clothes to the Swedish public. When creative fashion people from Sweden can do as they like and they have a global audience, the style they develop might sometimes be minimalist, but many times it is as much a break with this aesthetic as anything else.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

April 18, 2011

The importance of the fashion media

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One of the editors in chief, Lisa Corneliusson, with the new issue of Rodeo.

It was a true hipster gathering when fashion magazine and site Rodeo relaunched its print version yesterday. I used to work closely with the magazine but these days I’m just writing for the site, as I’m involved with their competitor Bon.

In any case, I don’t think you can underestimate the impact of a few titles on the Swedish fashion scene. One in particular is always mentioned, called Bibel (literally “Bible”), a magazine which came out for two years between 1998 and 2000 before it was closed down. Bibel made it cool to like fashion – even though the magazine could be quite extreme in its aesthetical vision. It was on the pages of Bibel that I started to write, so naturally I remember it with fondness. Both Rodeo and Bon are in many ways children of Bibel, even though it may be more correct to say that all of these titles have been following in the footsteps of British fashion and pop culture magazines such as The Face and i-D.

These magazines, Bibel, Bon and Rodeo among others, have been reviled by some and revered by others. “Elitist”, “too trendy”, “too hip”, “stuck up”. I understand these opinions but in a world of mass marketed junk, there will and should always be a place for magazines that want to find what “the new” and “the now” is.

It is these magazines, in my opinion, that have been crucial in keeping the Swedish fashion scene on its toes and pushing it in new directions. Sometimes they have been detrimental (there can be group think) but without them Swedish fashion wouldn’t have the same cool.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

February 10, 2011

How I discovered fashion and learned to love Ann-Sofie Back

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Here I am, on the verge of discovering fashion. And no, the Italian guy was my friend, nothing else, despite appearances.

How does anyone discover fashion? I grew up in Borås, the old textile centre of Sweden. Maybe that has something to do with it? But, in reality, I hardly knew anyone who worked in the business. My brother’s girlfriend’s mother worked for Ted Lapidus, but that’s about it and to be fair, Borås was mainly a textile hub in the 1950s.

In my teens I started reading magazines such as The Face and i-D. I remember a discussion I had with my friends about what the people working at these hipster havens would be wearing. Now I know they probably just wore jeans and T-shirts like everyone else.

Still what pushed me in the direction of fashion was actually going abroad and studying for a year in Italy. At the time, the late 1990s, Stockholm and Sweden had only started becoming the trend hub it is today. People were more interested in white labels (12” vinyl) than designer labels.

In Italy I was confronted with a culture saturated with fashion. Style was everywhere and people knew what you were wearing even when they couldn’t see the brand name. It was a completely foreign concept to me.

Coming back to Sweden I realised that things were very different here. But something else was in the air as well. There seemed to be a growing interest in how to dress, in the joy of fashion, and also in the meaning of style. Soon I was writing about the new crop of Swedish designers, people like Ann-Sofie Back, Lovisa Burfitt and Carin Rodebjer, who were all starting out at that time.

I’ve seen many designers come and go, but there was something different with these three. To them, fashion was enough in itself, and they didn’t try to disguise it as something else (design, graphic design, art). They had a pride in fashion which previous Swedish fashion devotees had not been able to muster. Along with them a new generation of photographers and stylists came on to the scene and new edgy magazines started pushing the mainstream women’s titles towards a more fashion-centric approach. It was like a fashion education.

Sometimes I look back in amazement at how quickly Sweden went from a fashion phobic nation to the trend-conscious country it is today. Heritage and tradition goes a long way, but change can also happen very quickly.

I feel quite blessed to have lived through this change, because unlike the younger generation I know what Sweden was like before the ubiquitous fashion bloggers, style sections and fashion personalities of today. In some ways it was gentler and more fun – because it was more amateurish – but on the whole it’s nice to be able to talk about Acne Jeans and Maison Martin Margiela (even though the company isn’t Swedish) without having to explain what they are.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

January 26, 2011