Danish photographer Ole Christiansen, born 1955, has created portraits of more and less famous people for 40 years. In this book a number of black and white portrait photographs are presented, along with a few images of street / architecture. However, the bulk of the book is portraits.
Ole Christiansen presents a mixture of Danish and international celebrities. Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, David Byrne and Yoko Ono are examples and shows that he apparently has a name internationally. But also people that are “world famous in Denmark” are portraits, such as Lars von Trier and former Danish prime minister Poul Schlüter.
Ole Christiansen often uses hard light, which is normally not what you would use for (flattering) photography. But Ole’s project seems take the approach that the character of the person is key rather than beauty or a wrinkle free look.
You can find a few double exposures amongst the images in this book, and Ole does not shy away from using props such as mirrors, a record or a piece of paper. Or the subjects hand (see the front page with Iggy Pop).
However, for me, the most stunning images are the “simple” ones using a single hard light source to draw out and amplify the personality of the subject photographed. Even though his ability to put vivid focus on the eyes of the subject is stellar, you’ll also find images where the subject has eyes closed or is viewed in profile, i.e. not looking into the lens.
If you like portraits and B&W images, this books comes highly recommended. There are also a number of street / architecture images, but for me the important work here is the portraits. There is no text other than a small introduction to Ole Christiansen on the cover page – this is a book with only images. Just the way I like it.
Related reading
Review: Looking East, portraits by Steve McCurry.
Review: Ravens by Masahisa Fukase
