Biography / Carl Bengtsson
Carl Bengtsson is an internationally acclaimed Swedish photographer with long experience. Bergdorf Goodman, Jaeger, Aveda, Day, Harrods, Vogue, Elle & Financial Times are a few of the clients that have benefited from Carl’s talent.
Since the mid 1980s he has perfected a certain style of photography that has taken the fashionscene by storm. His pictures are dreamy and daring, showing poetry and sex appeal, pensiveness and a precise eye for what’s new.
Or as friend and colleague Lotta Lewenhaupt puts it in her book Bilden av Modet:
Carl is a rather quiet, retiring chap who appears at times to be shorter than his 178 cm. Of course, his height has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of his photography, but it does have something to do with the somehow cautious and observant impression that this slim individual creates. In fact, it has turned out to be entirely to Carl’s advantage: he may be persistent and know precisely what he wants, but he is not in any way assertive, or “pushy”. That’s not in his nature: he is, as they say, a tremendously “cautious general”. Yet there (really) is something so assertive in his imagery – it’s difficult for me to put my finger on it, but I believe that it’s to do with the fact that Carl gives a great deal of thought to how he will compose his images and create his very own expression. In a way, I find an answer when I ask about his photographic role models: “When I was younger and new to photography, I looked a lot at Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. Today I’m my own source of inspiration, and I take a picture by drawing on the conditions presented by every job, or those that I can create myself.” These conditions also include “interesting clothes, an inspiring model and a good story”.
When Carl started out as a photographer, towards the end of the 1970s, most of his work consisted of covers for record companies, and he took quite a lot of backstage pictures at various concerts – indeed, he remained backstage for quite some time. But I also believe that this fostered his eye for snapshots. Carl wasn’t particularly a go-getter in the early days. But he was dedicated, and he had a strong sense of the need to deliver. He was also fantastically gifted in the darkroom, and this is where he was able to get a little more out of his images. Carl learned that “the first impression in an image is always the best”, in terms of both image concepts and image choice. The rest could be ignored and discarded. You could even discard everything that you didn’t like: something that Carl asserts today as something positive. Why even bother to save old pictures – they are not about the here and now! Besides: really good pictures are always there (as a memory) on the retina.
When I look at the pictures that he has taken over the years – he began to photograph fashion at the beginning of the 1980s – I recognize many references to Martin Muncàksi, André Kertész, Irving Penn, Guy Bourdin, for example, and Stig Forsberg. Documentary and natural, manipulated out-of-focus, sepia tone, romantic tone from the 1920s, peaceful, dramatic. For example, Carl's advertising pictures for the Danish fashion brand Day are both old-fashioned and innovative at the same time, both distinctive and provocative: I find the softness in his pictures very much to my personal taste, but above all I appreciate his playing with light and his ability to utilize the drama in how daylight falls – or how he sets shadow and light against one another. It comes as no surprise to me that Carl prefers existing environments and bright daylight. The rest is up to the imagination and fantasy.
http://www.carlbengtsson.com
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The FINANCIAL TIMES, "how to spend it", |