Saturated was the inaugural solo show by S酶lve Sundsb酶 at Spring Studios, which opened on 8 February and ran until 20 March 2008. The exhibition was the first in an exciting cross-cultural programme at Spring Projects, a brand new commercial gallery space at the studio.
S酶lve was born in 1970 in Norway, and has been living in London for over a decade. 鈥淚 moved to London in 1994. I briefly went to college, before I started assisting. I assisted for three and a half years and then I started taking my own pictures in 1998. I have been living in London ever since and working in Paris, London, and New York 鈥 sounds like a fragrance bottle.鈥
S酶lve is regarded as one of the primary innovators in contemporary image making. He was awarded the best newcomer prize at the International Festival of Fashion in Hyeres in 1999 and had an exhibition at the same festival in 2003. He has even collaborated with Alexander McQueen for the Florence Biennale.
As a catalyst for visual experimentation, S酶lve has received tremendous respect from within the industry, gaining commercial clients including: Yves Saint Laurent, Levi鈥檚, Nike, Estee Lauder, Sergio Rossi and Gucci Jewellery. He has been shooting regularly for magazines such as Pop, The Face, ID, Dazed and Confused, and Harper鈥檚 Bazaar, so it鈥檚 intriguing that his work, which fits normally within the commercial flare, is to inaugurate Spring Studios.
The line between commercial work and art is often blurred. 鈥淚f you take a historic overview, almost all art has been commissioned. It鈥檚 more of a recent thing that it isn鈥檛, but that in the broad historical overview. It鈥檚 only in the last 150 years that being an artist for the sake of being an artist rather than receiving commissions has existed. In many ways, when you鈥檙e a commercial photographer you try to create something with an artistic merit, even if it鈥檚 not just for your own benefit. For me, I鈥檝e always taken the view that I don鈥檛 call myself an artist. I am a commercial photographer and if someone chooses to call my work art, that鈥檚 fine. If someone wants to exhibit it, I find that interesting. I am becoming a casual observer of my own work when people take it out of the context in which it was created.鈥
One of the most renowned fashion photographers today, S酶lve Sundsb酶, is launching his first solo show, Saturated at Spring Studios, London this winter.
S酶lve鈥檚 method combines simplicity of approach with a perfectionist鈥檚 eye for detail, and a technical sophistication, both in camera and in postproduction, which enables him to create effortlessly beautiful, dynamic, cutting-edge imagery. 鈥淎s a commercial photographer you work with a team, and as an artist you generally work on your own. When you work with hair, make-up and stylists you talk for a long time about how you envisage the picture, and then you create it together.鈥
In S酶lve鈥檚 world everything is planned and considered. Studios are often used, as are models, however, the work created still embodies artistic flare and creative sensibilities. 鈥淵ou have a woman like Karen Elson who is fantastic; she鈥檚 almost like a canvas, she can be a boy, a glamorous woman, virtually anything. The image of Karen didn鈥檛 take very long because everything was well planned. There just isn鈥檛 an element of chance. It was shot with a large format Sinar camera. The one thing that took time was to get the smoke right. We shot about 20 or 30 pictures for that, but you just know when it鈥檚 right. 鈥
S酶lve鈥檚 modern sensibility has produced captivating pictures that continually drive photography forward and challenges the viewer. Saturated consists of 12 arresting and iconic portrait images. The selection of works for the exhibition share a quality of portraying their subjects as if locked into their own closed private spaces, creating an other-worldliness through highly charged visions and hyper-realities.
鈥淭he whole exhibition is interesting for me because I haven鈥檛 done a solo show before. The people I work with said 鈥榊ou should have an exhibition鈥. I always said no, as I鈥檓 busy doing my day job. When Spring Studios came along, it presented an opportunity to have a show that isn鈥檛 huge, in terms of amount of images, and I decided it was a perfect opportunity. I鈥檝e produced 300 images in the past two months, which is a lot. You can imagine that when you鈥檝e done this for nine years, it鈥檚 hard to narrow it down to make sure it鈥檚 a show that makes sense. I couldn鈥檛 just pick anything. There must be a thread that keeps them together. The things that tie this exhibition together are the iconic images that were shot in a studio situation, and that they鈥檙e all otherworldly creatures, slightly more than just human, but not science fiction. We have a pair of green lips, a vampire, a woman behind a red veil, a man dressed partly as a woman but with the most masculine shoulders you鈥檝e ever seen. They鈥檙e all creatures that I鈥檇 love to see in real life.鈥
In a world where images mean everything, S酶lve is pragmatic, he says, 鈥淎rt loves fashion and fashion love art, in the same way that art loves design and design loves art. I think that fashion is the commercial form of art. There are a lot of fashion photographers who would love to be artists, I鈥檓 not saying that I would love to be an artist, but I鈥檇 like to see my work in a new way. Maybe I can use this exhibition to develop my own work and take more chances. Fashion photography can be tedious, grey, dull, repetitive and at times boring. I don鈥檛 want to become an artist, as such, that鈥檚 not my aspiration, but it鈥檚 interesting to do projects that can be considered more pure art pieces than fashion pieces.
Cherie Federico
