Jazz Legends

Photographer Christer Landergren (1941–2006) captured the Swedish jazz scene and visiting superstars from the mid-1960s onwards. He photographed at venues such as Gyllene Cirkeln, the jazz club that put Stockholm on the world map in the late 60s, and at Fasching. He immortalised unforgettable moments on stage with Swedish greats like Monica Zetterlund and Esbjörn Svensson, as well as the most renowned international musicians who shaped the development of jazz and became legends.

Christer Landergren’s deep interest in jazz began in his teenage years. He has himself described a pivotal trip to the cinema in the early 1950s, where he saw the film New Orleans, featuring jazz musician Louis Armstrong and singer Billie Holiday. From that moment, jazz became a lifelong passion. From 1965 until his death, he worked for the jazz magazine OrkesterJournalen.

The Performing Arts Museum exhibited his photographs in the exhibition "Photo: Christer Landergren," which ran from June 10, 2022, to August 27, 2023. The exhibition was a collaboration with the Swedish Music Archive, to which Christer Landergren donated his entire photo archive, consisting of approximately 150,000 negatives and thousands of prints, in 2006. All the items in this auction come from the same collector, who, like Landergren, had jazz close to their heart.