Our autumn sale includes two of Christer Strömholm’s most iconic photographs “Bleka Damen, Barcelona, 1955” and “Pojkarna, Montreuil, Paris, 1962” (Catalogue No. 204). There are also two rare guests in the sale from Santa Monica, LA, “Honest John, 'Muscle Beach' 1963” (Catalogue No. 205) and “Clips”, 1963 (Catalogue No. 206).

What interested Christer Strömholm most was studying our true human identity. His documentary photographs from the project in Paris in the 1950s, “Vännerna på Place Blanche” are legendary today. Equally as well known as his suite of friends at the Moulin Rouge and the nightclubs round Place Blanche is the image of the carefully made-up woman known as “Bleka Damen”. Taking photographs was, for Christer Strömholm, a sacred obligation. He did not work with commercial assignments but undertook casual jobs as a press photographer, bartender, and tour guide in order to keep himself in film and pay for laboratory work. It was on a trip to Barcelona that the famous photograph of the pale woman was taken at an afternoon brothel in a pause between the guided tours. “Bleka Damen” has been shown at MoMA in New York together with other world-famous historical photographers. The image also appeared on the cover of the most recent edition of “La Petite Encyclopédie de la Photographie” which contains articles on the 220 leading photographers in the history of photography.