I got my first camera when I was 12 years old. I've always taken pictures since then. The fascination is quite hard to describe, but I guess the actual capturing of a moment is the magical key. Sometimes I'm obsessed by psychedelic patterns in nature or in any kind of structure, but most often I'm a human-soul-stealer. Portraits, nudes and party snaps make my day any day. Lately I've ventured into computerised treatments of photographs with great joy. Having worked with very safe advertising and commercial work, it's always a pleasure to distill some genuinely perverse and distorted pictures out of my mind, through the lens, via the negative and into the digital realms of utter corruption. So much can be said about the power of the image. But isn't that really the essence of absurdity, to try and describe an image with words? Words have their own place, and their own claim to power. When used jointly, there's an almost uncannily powerful tool for conversion and manipulation. Suffice to say that photography is a multifaceted artistic tool with almost unlimited creative potential. It can be used for flattering, debasing, instructing, illuminating, confusing or merely documenting. It all depends on what you see - or decide to see - in the actual moment when a faint amount of light is permitted to merge with a film's shallow yet swallowing depth of silver and plastic. In the end, aren't we all voyeurs, desperately hoping to get a prurient peak of someone else's body, or soul even? I decidedly think that we're just that - physical and/or psychical voyeurs. The only difference between us, is that some have cameras and some don't. Would you mind taking off your...? Never mind. Sources of admiration from my POINT OF VIEW: Helmut Newton, Nobuyoshi Araki, Andy Warhol, Man Ray, Anton Corbijn, Richard Kern, Bettina Rheims, Ralph Gibson, Weegee, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Leni Riefenstahl, Pepita Seth, Berth Milton Senior, Roswitha Hecke, Ansel Adams and J.K. Potter. Alive or dead, may their shutters always be happily snapping, for ever in search of the perfect filtering of lingering light. Below you'll find some blasts from the past and snaps from the taps of history. Enjoy! I intend to make this photography page grow, but only want to show newly made, fresh prints. So it'll probably grow quite slowly but, trust me, very surely. All pictures in my files are for sale. Please request a complete list, if interested. Suggestions and offers for assignments are most welcome. Contact me here! People.Abstract and Concrete.Treatments.
All material is copyright © 1999 Carl Abrahamsson, if nothing else is stated. [Back to the old homestead!] |