The
Gazette
1st Edition August 2012
ciff.dk
Carven p.6»
Social mEdia p.19»
Carven’s Guillaume Henry explains why he believes when it comes to the Internet, less is more
Jessica Michault p.4»
On what the new wind blowing over Paris fashion means for the industry
KELD AND COLOUR p.22»
New hotshot startup Pinterest has everyone across the web excited. Can it live up to the hype?
Spring summer p.8»
Discover the trends and directions that will shape our industry in the months to come
A chat with pioneering Danish photographer Keld Helmer-Petersen
GaNNI p.20»
CEO of Danish brand Ganni talks to us about the challenges of growing beyond local borders
Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) is the largest fashion fair in Northern Europe The Spring/Summer 2013 season will be unveiled August 9-12 at the Bella Center, Copenhagen. Follow us on Twitter @CIFF_DK
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WELCOME
Editorial By Jessica Michault Editor-in-chief of NowFashion.com Photography Daniel Riera
The fashion world is in the throes of a farreaching transformation. A number of recent radical innovations have forced the industry to re-examine many of its fundamental underpinnings as it strides forward into the second decade of the new millennium. The clearest indication that things are in flux is the appointment of new designers to head up two of the strongest and most renowned fashion houses in the world. The almost simultaneous announcements that Raf Simons would become creative director at Christian Dior and that Hedi Slimane would take over at the helm of Yves Saint Laurent point towards a fashion future with a minimalist slant. If their past track record is anything to go by, it will undoubtedly be a future that will explore the definition of gender roles and androgynous dress. Simons’ recent debut at Dior strongly referenced the iconic 1947 “New Look” collection by Monsieur Dior, but there are also clear signs that he is already putting his own distinctive mark on the brand. At Yves Saint Laurent, Slimane has yet to send out his first collection but he is already making a clean break with the brand’s past by changing its name to Saint Laurent Paris. But it is not just on the catwalks that change is afoot. In a post-recession world, Cover Malthe wears consumers’ luxury desires cropped sweatshirt, tanktop and sweatpants have changed. The fashion M.A.B shoes PRO-Keds frenzy that once engulfed the
industry has been replaced with a more reserved and reflective approach. Luxury clients are starting once again to ask themselves if their yearning for a garment is strong enough to justify its price tag. This readjustment of consumer attitudes goes hand in hand with the paradigm shift that social media platforms have enforced on the market. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have helped transform what was once a monologue of luxury brands sending out their corporate message to the world into an interactive and vocal dialogue between brands and their fans. Consumers are no longer willing to sit on the fashion sidelines and be force-fed fashion as dictated by the brands. They want to help construct the narrative, and the immediacy of the Internet and sites like Nowfashion.com, Style.com and Fashionista.com ensure that they are educated and up to speed on the latest trends in real time. This issue of immediacy will be one of the biggest concerns facing fashion for the next decade, if not longer. The current concept of a six-month lag between when a fashion show hits the web (instantaneously) and when the products arrive in stores is truly an outdated delivery system. By the time the runway looks are on the racks, fashion followers are already coveting the next season’s collection and the shop floor ensembles already look démodé. Brands like Burberry or sites like Moda Operandi have already
started to address this problem by making it possible to pre-order looks even as the fashion shows are underway. But this is a sartorial Band-Aid for a widereaching design dilemma. As the production, presentation and consumption of fashion continues to become more streamlined, so too does the concept of seasonal dress. The idea of dressing with a particular season in mind is set to fade as more and more brands understand that their customers are global nomads who frequently travel from one climate to another. And for those who do stay put, the preconceived notion that season and weather still follow a clear calendar no longer applies. Global warming has made the seasons anyone’s guess, and this is something fashion brands and stores must address by designing and stocking trans-seasonal clothing with a longer shelf life. Looking forward, fashion will continue to have an enormous impact on the global economy. As emerging markets become more educated and refine their sartorial tastes, they will exert increasing influence over brands looking to entice new shoppers into their stores. The key to success, however, will be not to panhandle to particular markets but rather to create a clear, definitive and unique perspective for each brand. This is something that both Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane will undoubtedly do as they lead the way into a new fashion era.
Editor-in-chief and CIFF Fashion & Lifestyle Director Kristian W. Andersen Creative Director Pierre Tzenkoff Design Director Mark Jubber Art Director Victor Lieberath Head of Digital Strategy Arnaud Vanraet Head of Social Media Hélène Le Blanc Colour Management Alain Touminet Printing Rosendahls
MAKING STATEMENTS SINCE 1872
6 THE CIFF GAZETTE
INTERVIEW
Social Media On His Terms »
For Carven, Facebook is a tool for communication not publicity. It’s about giving our followers a little bit more.
«
Founded by Carmen de Tommaso in 1945 as a haute couture maison, the House of Carven was purchased in 2008 by Group SCM and the name changed to Carven. Guillaume Henry, an alumnus of Givenchy and Paule Ka, was recruited to relaunch Carven as a pret-a-porter brand. Carven has since garnered critical and commercial success for combining creativity and affordability. By Hélène Le Blanc Photography Anthony Maule
At last count, British heritage brand Burberry had amassed 1,124,827 “followers” on Twitter and over 13 million “likes” on Facebook. Not to be outdone, the hallowed House of Dior now counts 1,042,567 “followers” and 8.3 million “likes”. For some fashion brands, bigger is seemingly better and they’re willing to invest considerable resources to burnish their social media profile. Elaborate Facebook campaigns and lavish blogger events have thus become industry standards. While the big international brands are busy chasing followers by the hundreds of thousands and courting the favours of influential bloggers, other brands are taking a more measured approach. One would expect a fashion brand beloved of the hip, digitally-connected set like Carven to jump enthusiastically into the social media fray along with the rest of the industry. Not so. The brand’s creative director, Guillaume Henry, has what you might call a complicated relationship with the Internet: “I like the Internet but I’m also very wary of it. There are no filters, so there is no way to tell whether information is accurate or to indicate whether a source is credible or not. That bothers me.” Understandably, the rough and tumble digital sphere with its unvarnished commentary can be a brutal place for any designer, a fact that makes Henry all the more wary. Unlike Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, who reportedly combs the Internet and
reads everything he comes across relating to his work, Henry categorically refuses to do this: “Each new collection is like giving birth. I want everyone to love my baby, but not everybody will. I need to protect myself but also my creativity and self-confidence, so I don’t read everything written about it on every platform across the Internet.” Henry was equally reluctant to embrace Facebook at first: “Initially, I was anti-Facebook. I didn’t see the point of it.” He eventually came around to the idea of using the platform as a way of letting fans of the brand take part in events they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. They now livestream runway shows from their Facebook page and offer followers a glimpse of what goes on backstage. “It’s our way of telling them ‘Even if you can't be here with us, you’re still a part of it.’” The brand is still not on Twitter and until we sat down with Henry, he had never heard of Pinterest. And yet ironically, despite Henry’s arm’s length relationship with the digital world, a quick Google search yields pages upon pages of search results including countless blog posts, Pinterest boards, Facebook and Twitter references generated by the throngs of ardent Carven admirers. In social media terms, this amounts to valuable “buzz” and it’s enough to make bigger brands with deeper pockets downright envious. It's not that Carven has no social media strategy. Rather, it’s
that Henry places a premium over quality of interaction rather than size of digital footprint: “Blogs for me are an interesting source of insight into the brand. I learn things about Carven on blogs that even I didn’t know. They’re a window into the thoughts and opinions of a certain category of consumer.” But as far as Henry is concerned, not all blogs are created equally: “I don’t care about a blog’s traffic. I don’t care about superficial comments, good or bad. I look for thoughtfulness.” It is perhaps this sense of reserve coupled with a genuine attempt to connect meaningfully with the brand’s admirers that most clearly sets Carven apart from others in the industry. After all, social media platforms were conceived for the purpose of building communities. At the heart of social media lies the notion of exchange, a fact too often ignored by brands in search of blockbuster numbers. A quick glance at Burberry’s or Dior’s Twitter feeds suggests that they treat the platform as little more than a channel for PR releases rather than a place to meaningfully connect with followers. On this point Henry is adamant: “For Carven, Facebook is a tool for communication, not publicity. It’s about giving our followers a little bit more.” It would be difficult to argue credibly that Carven’s measured approach is not working for them, perhaps proving that just as there’s no such thing as “one size fits all” in fashion, there’s no “one size fits all” in social media.
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FASHION
Spring
Photography Daniel Riera
FASHION
Summer
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FASHION
FASHION
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Previous spread Otto wears underwear JBS Top left Therese wears suede shorts, suede shirt and t-shirt Ganni bracelet Kranz & Ziegler Bottom left Mikkel wears shirt, trousers and belt M.A.B shoes Sebago ring Ugo Cacciatori This page Marikka wears jacket Onstage dress Karen by Simonsen shoes Palladium necklace Georg Jensen
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Left to right from above Frederikke wears dress Ginna Bacconi Solveig wears jacket and dress Adidas boots Shoe Biz sunglasses Veronique Branquinho Malthe wears jacket Jofama t-shirt Adidas jeans Strellson scarf IKKS Solveig wears dress and underwear Ganni jacket Onstage boots By Burin sunglasses Bottega Venetta Peter wears shirt and vest Jean Phillip
FASHION
FASHION
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FASHION
FASHION
Top left Frederikke wears jacket and trousers Gestuz shoes Blink bag Calvin Klein earrings Monies Below left Otto wears leather jacket, tanktop and trousers M.A.B shoes Sebago Centre Otto wears suit Strellson t-shirt JBS sunglasses Orgreen sneakers PRO-Keds Top right Otto wears jacket Jofama t-shirt JBS jeans Shine belt BĂŚlte Kompagniet rings and bracelet Kranz & Ziegler shoes Royal Republic; Frederikke wears top and trousers Margit Brandt clutch Onstage sunglasses Orgreen shoes Blink Below right Otto wears sweater FQ1924 t-shirt Shine shorts J Lindeberg CPH hat Calvin Klein shoes Rokin; Peter wears bracelets Ole Lynggaard vest and cap Deerhunter t-shirt and shorts Jean Phillip shoes Sebago
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FASHION
FASHION
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Opposite top Anna T. wears jacket and t-shirt Henri Lloyd jeans Lieblings Jeans bag Adax bracelet Dannijo shoes Billi Bi Opposite below Solveig wears shirt Gestuz jeans b.young shoes Apair Top Anna T. wears jacket Onstage shirt Margit Brandt shoes Nome Footwear sunglasses Bottega Venetta Below Anna H. wears top and jeans Pulz shoes Sperry clutch Rudi og Harald sunglasses stylist’s own; Malthe wears suit BOSS Black shirt Seven Seas tie In Line With The World sunglasses Veronique Branquinho shoes Sebago Photography Daniel Riera Fashion Kathrine Glindvad & Joy Sinanian Hair Lasse Pedersen Make-up Rikke Dengsø Manicurist Sarah Sabir Photography assistance John Enos Dickey Digital assistance Jacob Storm Retouching Sébastien de Oliveira Photography management David Bault at Jed Root Production Fashion Exclusive Models Malthe at Elite Model Management, Anna T., Malene K., Otto and Therese at 2PM, Anna H., Marikka, Mikkel and Tea at Scoop, Frederikke, Peter Beyer and Solveig at Unique Locations Faxe Kalkbrud, Kastrup Søbad, Amager Strandpark, Christiansborg Ridebane and Sydhavn
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SOCIAL MEDIA
VIMEO
vimeo.com/openingceremony
pinterest.com/thecoveteur
#video #fashion #shopping #nyc
#closets #interior #fashion #shoes #bags
Follow VeePost.com is a street-smart fashion blog with definite feminine flair featuring the latest trends, accessories and interviews. VeePost’s founder, Virginie Dhello, shares her favourite social media platforms with The CIFF Gazette. By VeePost.com
INSTAGR AM
@styledotcommarina
#style #fashion #accessories #trends
TUMBLR
vanityfair.tumblr.com #celebs #glamour #cinema
@coolhunting
#style #tech #design #travel #food #culture
SOUNDCLOUD
soundclound.com/italiansdoitbetterrecords #music #playlist #electronic #nudisco
SOCIAL MEDIA
THE CIFF GAZETTE 19
Friending, liking, following and tweeting form part of our daily communication experience, but now “re-pinning” is being added to our social media lexicon. With its potential to enhance everyone’s experience of the web, its audacious revenue-generating ambitions and its undeniable allure as a marketing tool, Pinterest is taking the Internet by storm. But can it live up to all the buzz? By Hélène Le Blanc
Can Silicon Valley’s Newest Darling Live Up To The Hype? Chances are, unless you happen to belong to the “digerati”, that class of technology early adopters frequently at the forefront of digital trends, you probably have no clue what the act of “re-pinning” entails. The term really only makes sense if you happen to be familiar with Silicon Valley’s newest hotshot startup, Pinterest. Founded two years ago, it already has nearly 12 million users (mostly located in the US and UK), enjoys a valuation estimated between 1 and 1.5 billion USD, and recently secured a round of funding for 100 million USD. Pretty impressive for a company that still counts only 50 employees on its payroll.
»
The simple act of uploading or re-pinning an enticing image to one's personal board is perhaps the ultimate aspirational gesture.
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In simple terms, Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board or scrapbook that allows users to collect images from across the web and organise them onto “boards” according to categories: fashion, places, cars, etc. If a photo on Style.com or Vogue.fr appeals to a user, they can “re-pin” it: Pinterest lingo for posting the image onto their personal boards. The entire operation takes only a few seconds and is easy enough to perform by even the least tech-savvy web user. Red and white “Pin It” buttons have become ubiquitous on e-tailers like Net-A-Porter and Mr. Porter, an implicit invitation to customers to pin the product images onto their personal boards. Retailers from mass favourite Target to luxury emporium Bergdorf Goodman have also taken note. Their official Pinterest boards are awash
with enticing product images making it easy for users to “re-pin”, “like” and comment, thus amplifying the online echo chamber for their products. More importantly, the pins lead users back to their e-commerce sites making the online journey from discovery to purchase literally a few clicks away. Currently located in modest quarters in Palo Alto, the fledgling company recently announced that it will be leaving Silicon Valley and relocating its operations further north in San Francisco. The promise of larger premises is no doubt welcome news as it will have to grow considerably if it is to live up to the tremendous excitement generated thus far amongst investors, retailers and marketeers. Indeed, the question on virtually everyone’s lips is whether Pinterest can remain focused enough to live up to the hype, or whether it will crumble under the weight of expectations like so many promising upstarts. It is worth noting that Pinterest differs from other startups in a number of significant ways. First, the platform was conceived for mainstream audiences rather than hardcore tech geeks, a factor which may account for its early rate of adoption amongst average web users, predominantly women. Also, to their credit, Pinterest’s management already seems to have its eyes on the bottom line. Unlike other tech startups including Facebook and Twitter who waited to reach a critical mass of users before turning their attention to making money, Pinterest has been quick off the mark to explore revenue streams, something virtually unheard of in Silicon Valley. Still in Beta form, it is already experimenting with affiliate links, and while it’s still too early to tell, this may shed light on the company’s revenue model going forward. Given the early and growing enthusiasm of heavyweights like Target, Gap and Urban Outfitters, it may prove to be their wisest move yet.
Despite its meteoric rise, the platform is not without critics, many of whom point to copyright issues associated with users uploading images scoured from the Internet with little or no attribution and without consent from rights holders. While Pinterest’s terms of use place the responsibility for copyright issues squarely on users, many argue that this is insufficient to discharge the platform’s responsibility, thus presenting considerable risk to future growth. Also, there is always the threat of rival upstarts like The Fancy and giants like Facebook muscling in on the action with its rumoured “I Want” button. The Fancy in particular poses a threat in that it seems to have been conceived for the very purpose of offering fashion and design-driven brands a sleek consumer-facing interactive showcase for their wares, complete with built in e-commerce backend. Free of the kitschy kitten pics, DIY knitting projects and “nail art” that abound on Pinterest, The Fancy is the posh luxury boutique to Pinterest’s street bazaar. Not surprisingly, it has the financial backing of Paris-based luxury conglomerate PPR. For now however, Pinterest is enjoying strong momentum. Ask any fan of the site to explain its appeal and you'll hear vague terms like “pleasurable”, “relaxing” and “addictive”. Beyond the enjoyment associated with pinning however, the true power of Pinterest and platforms like it may be embedded deeper in our consumer consciousness. The simple act of uploading or re-pinning an enticing image to one’s personal board is perhaps the ultimate aspirational gesture, the first step on the road to eventual possession, real or perceived. As anyone who has ever sat before their screen mesmerised by a beautiful product image knows, that is a very powerful feeling indeed. Viewed in this light, Pinterest may very well live up to the hype after all.
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INTERVIEW
A Well Kept Secret No Longer
We live in an age of widespread corporate consolidation and the fashion industry is no exception. Everything from distribution channels to the advertising and editorial pages of magazines are dominated by deep-pocketed fashion conglomerates. As a result, it can be harder for small independent labels to get a foothold in the market. We speak to Nicolaj Reffstrup, CEO of Danish brand Ganni, about the challenges of building a fashion brand in uncertain economic times and growing beyond local borders. By Elizabeth Atwood Photography Olivia Frølich
Ganni has been around for over a decade yet it remains a well kept secret amongst Danes. Why is that? Ganni was founded more than 12 years ago as a side business for Gallery owner Frans Truelsen and a friend. The brand’s focus at the time was cashmere knits and other luxury basics. Despite a few blockbusters, it never grew into more than two lovely but narrow collections per year. In late 2007, Frans joined forces with Ditte Reffstrup, a highly respected fashion buyer. After developing a few well-received styles and building a proper design team, Ganni brought in new management and co-owners in 2009 and we haven’t looked back since. Internally we consider mid 2009 to be the starting point of the re-launch and repositioning of Ganni. Viewed from this perspective, we're still pretty new to the game which might explain why so few have heard of us beyond Denmark. Ganni recently entered the U.K. market last January. Is expansion beyond Scandinavia a priority for the brand? In many respects we are a typical Scandinavian fashion brand. We aim to offer a high quality mid-range product wrapped in a visually coherent aesthetic while remaining affordable to a broad majority of consumers. But despite a design savvy population in the Nordic region, the market for mid-range fashion labels is simply too small for us to build a sustainable business in the long run. Also, we are very much a niche label. We have a highly evolved DNA that we believe in. We are influenced by trends but not driven by them. In that sense we need to carve out a chunk of every market we approach and build a following. We don’t just ride a wave that takes us all over a market in a short time. So, yes, expansion beyond the Scandinavian market is a must for us if we want to continue to grow.
What has been the response of U.K. customers to your brand thus far? We are not broadly represented in the U.K. yet but it’s something we’re working on. Getting new stockists in times of crises is always a challenge as many buyers understandably become risk averse and avoid trying new stuff. Still, some buyers are willing to take a chance and that for us is an opportunity. Luckily we have very high sell-through rates in almost all stores that carry us both online and off, in London and beyond. So thus far, we’re very happy with the response of British consumers. Building a fashion brand is never easy at the best of times. Is it harder still for a small, Danish brand to break into the European market? The fashion industry is extremely fragmented and dynamic. There are thousands of brands, lots of local heroes, frequent burnouts and new labels arising from the ashes. All these factors are amplified in times of crisis. As far as we’re concerned, this dynamic creates new opportunities to be grabbed by a brand offering a great product. Our biggest challenge is our limited sales and marketing budgets. To open up new markets you need exposure and attention. Or a damn good product. We rely on the latter until we can afford the former. Is the Scandinavian consumer different from other European consumers? If so, how? Consumers are different in all markets. That goes for Scandinavia as well. There are surprisingly large differences between consumers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark despite the close cultural and historical ties. Generally, I think Scandinavian consumers are even quicker to pick up the latest trends than Euro-
pean consumers. I think perhaps it comes from being smaller countries with a relatively high income per capita. Because we’re so small, we tend to be highly sensitised to anything that goes on outside our territorial borders. Also, Scandinavians travel a great deal and so have finely tuned cultural radars. Can you identify three challenges your brand needs to overcome to break through in the rest of Europe? Leaving aside the current macro economic circumstances which are beyond our control, I would say that as a small business, our first priority is managing cash flow. We need to grow but not too fast. Secondly, we need to maintain a solid balance between our wholesale and retail business. And finally, our third priority is to sell enough products to generate the marketing budgets that will enable us to tell our story to the rest of Europe. Of course, all of this can only be possible if our design team continues to create outstanding collections. That remains the backbone of our business. What other markets are you targeting? Our top priority markets are currently Scandinavia, UK and Germany. We’re also represented by agents or distributors in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada and soon Australia. We’re continuously in talks with distributors in the US and a couple of Asian markets. The latter mostly because everybody seems to think you need an Asia strategy to be taken seriously these days. The former because we all love NYC and need an excuse to go there frequently. Nicolaj Reffstrup joined Ganni in 2007 as an investor and became CEO in 2009. Ganni is headquartered in Copenhagen and counts eighteen employees. It has three stores across Denmark.
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photography
An interview with Keld Helmer-Petersen In 1948, the great Danish photographer and pioneer of colour photography self-published his first colour book, instinctively combining graphics and abstraction. Forgotten for decades, this title has now become an aesthetic and historical reference work.
By David Bault Photography Daniel Riera
THE CIFF GAZETTE 23
photography
»
Martin Parr made this point: “it is a mistake to think that Eggleston was first, Helmer-Petersen was earlier but he is forgotten now.”
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It’s 10 am on a beautiful street in Copenhagen under a bright blue monochrome sky. A brick building with big white windows, a dark wooden door, and an ancient buzzer labelled “K. HELMER-PETERSEN”. We walk through the hall and climb the wooden stairs, sunbeams gently overexposing the windows. We ring the bell and a tall, handsome man opens the door, smiling like a child, as if time had never had any effect on him. The apartment is well furnished with amazing Poul Kjaerholm vintage tables, chairs, and couch. Huge bookshelves full of books cover one wall, and little things like dried flowers, a crushed Coca-Cola can, some pieces of fabric, a piece of cellophane, some photocopies of his earlier work, and small personal photographs randomly decorate the shelves. On closer inspection, there are books everywhere… Keld invites us to sit down, disappears, and a minute later returns with a tray, a bottle of port and some nice little glasses. The man sits and starts pouring the sweet wine. He is happy to meet us but he is also wondering why we are so interested to meet him. We remind him about the interview and he starts laughing modestly and seems a little embarrassed. I explain that to make it easier we will just turn it into a gentle conversation about him, how he became a photographer, his history and life as an artist…nothing too formal. Keld, your legendary book “122 Color Photographs” that came out in 1948 will be soon republished by Errata Editions. Looking at those early photographs, it seems clear that architecture, lines, structures, proportions, design and colour played a very important role in your work. Why is that? I don’t know, I just felt strongly for all that, you know. I met so many interesting people in Chicago; Mies Van der Rohe for instance…While I was in Chicago in the 50’s, he was building his Lake Shore Drive apartments, I saw them going up. The Eameses had one of their first shows when I was there, so it was a really exciting time to be in America. Already in the late 40’s and before you went to the States, you showed a real interest in architecture, proportions and lines… It was more instinctive than anything else, I liked white tiles and blue sky, it was very simple, you know. I guess, if you are interested, it comes to you instinctively… The choice of colour was not common at that time. 35mm colour films appeared only a decade prior to the publication of your first monograph and most of the art photographers were using black and white in 1948. Oh! I thought it would be very interesting to see what you could do with colour. Now, they are comparing me to William Eggleston, which I don’t think is fair
because I think I was better than Eggleston (laughs)… but anyway you know, I can see the point but it was interesting that there should be that long gap between my book that came out in 48 and Eggleston in the 70’s. Martin Parr made this point: “it is a mistake to think that Eggleston was first, Helmer-Petersen was earlier but he is forgotten now”. Now I am not forgotten anymore (laughs). On the subject of Martin Parr, in one interview you told him that your mother gave you your first Leica and that it was the start… Oh Yeah! That was when I finished school, she gave me that as a present and I thought, whoa! It’s beautiful, what do I do with it? I found it difficult to get used to, and when I had my first roll of film developed, I got some small prints made from it, I threw the negatives away, thinking I do not need those anymore, I was so…(laughs) unaccustomed to the whole thing, you know. Were you studying Art or Architecture at that time? No, I started in a bookshop but I was always taking photographs in my spare time, so the man in the bookstore, who was a good friend, looked at my slides and said “Hey, wait a minute, you should do something with these, so he went up to a publisher and said “I think you should take this idea and do a book with it”. The next thing I did was to go down to one of the biggest printing houses, I went to see the director and said “I have about 200 slides here and I would like to publish a book”. He said “OK!” and when I went out of the door he called my home, my Mum, and said “your son was here and placed an enormous order for a book in colour, is that OK?”and she said “Oh yeah! I guess it is OK…” (laughs). The thing is, besides being a colour photobook this was also a self-publication, which was very uncommon at the time… I think they took it as a prestige thing, they thought it was a prestigious thing to do a book that looked like that, they were very happy to publish it. The publishing house…had a young man working as a trainee in New York, so we sent him a book and he took it to Wilson Hicks at Life magazine, he pulled out 6 or 7 pictures and that was how it started. So it was a very nice visiting card to have done that book. Then I went to the States and that was the turning point. Life magazine played an important role as a picture medium, a very important role. People were waiting for the next issue of Life which was a good mix of documentary and creative photography, so it was a must to be in that magazine. What kind of work were you doing for Life, was it very different from your art work? Oh, yes! It was about places like schools or things like that. I didn’t really like it much. I thought it was a little bit outside my normal way of working. I had this terrible job, to go to Minneapolis to photograph a new
church by a Finnish architect, the church was OK but my knowledge of the new 4X5 camera was no good. I was used to using the Leica all the time, you know, and there I was with this big tripod and this big 4X5 camera that Life gave me to use, and I didn’t really know how to use it (laughs) so it wasn’t very successful… In America you studied at The Art Institute of Chicago where Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind were giving classes. What did you learn from there? Yes, I thought they were terrific! And I had some nice material with me from Chicago, so I made that into a book. That was a nice little book, I like it very much, I wish it could be reprinted. So you did a colour book in ‘48, went to the States and came back to publish a black & white book? Well I mean, there wasn’t so much colour in Chicago, as a matter of fact, it’s a big industrial city, very polluted and at that time very smoky and you had this very bleak grey sky all the time. It was a different kind of light where things tend to look like silhouettes, you had water towers, you had elevated railroads, you had fire escapes, it all called for B&W, it could only be B&W. Harry Callahan was also doing B&W at that time. Did you work with him? I saw his work in books, and I said “Oh wow, here is someone special so if I go to America I would like to work with him”. I got more out of looking at his pictures than out of the man himself. He wasn’t such a good teacher, to be quiet frank, but he had a fantastic program, you started doing photograms, very simple things, working in the darkroom, working with negative papers, pin holes, the basics of photography that I also used afterwards when I was a teacher... I think in a way, it’s a quiet, unsensational development you know. You start out with a Leica that was given to you as a present, you make a book from that because you have an eye, you do more books, and now you end up working with the digital medium. Do you like working with digital? Oh yes! I have a colleague who’s a photographer, he has a big Photoshop setup, so once a week I go to his studio, we sit down and I bring little things, cute little things, it could be anything really, a little dried flower, a bit of cellophane…and we scan them and we get beautiful things on the screen, then we start thinking, should it be more contrasty? Should we clean it up or should we leave some of the dust? There are so many possibilities…and all of a sudden out of this little bit of crinkly cellophane comes a beautiful image. So I’ve already done two books with these things. It’s very exciting and personally I’m happy to get rid of the darkroom, the chemicals, and I’m pleased to get rid of the camera. It’s wonderful, you bring this little thing, you put it into the scanner and whoa!!! Thank you very much Keld. It was a real pleasure…