Elisabeth Ohlson worked as a photographer for more than 40 years before her death in 2024. She is best known for her many portraits commissioned by newspapers and magazines, and for her images inspired by Christian art history.
References to biblical scenes and stories is a common thread in her work. Psalm texts are something Ohlson grew up with, having been introduced to them as a child in Sunday school in Skara, where she was born in 1961. Her big breakthrough came with the exhibition ‘Ecce Homo’ in 1998, a series of photographs in which well-known images from the New Testament were staged with models from sexual minorities. The exhibition attracted a lot of attention, became a watershed and was met with statements of both condemnation and gratitude. As recently as 2019, her work ‘Paradise’, Sweden's first LGBTQ altarpiece, was forced down from St Paul's Church in Malmö. In memory of Elisabeth Ohlson, Ersta Kulturscen (Ersta Diakoni) earlier this year once again showed the exhibition ‘Life, Death and Love’ that Ohlson created for them in 2021. The exhibition was inaugurated by Archbishop Emeritus KG Hammar.