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Mikael Jansson (born July 15, 1958) is a Swedish born fashion photographer and director considered to be among the leading image makers in the industry. Jansson regularly contributes to publications such as American and French Vogue, Interview Magazine as well as photographing campaigns for luxury brands such as Estée Lauder, Coach, Calvin Klein and Louis Vuitton.

Jansson garnered international attention in 1998 when he published a nude portfolio in Dutch, then considered by industry insiders the leading avant-garde Magazine. The feature spanned eighty-two pages and included fashion credits to nude images in a nod to Andy Warhol. Jansson currently divides his time between London and New York.

Early Life
Jansson grew up in his native Stockholm with a love for David Bowie and a passion for photography. In the 70’s and early 80’s he was talking his way into VIP areas and behind stage photographing popular bands coming to Stockholm such as Blondie, Roxy Music, Iggy, Bowie and the Clash, as well as musicians the likes of Chet Baker and Miles Davis. He then took on an assistant role with Swedish photographer Carl-Johan Rönn where he received an education in the works of the masters – Stieglitz, Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Kerstész and Lartigue. Five years thereafter, he moved to New York to assist the late Richard Avedon during the time Avedon was working on American West.

Career
In 1987 Jansson returned to Stockholm and set up his own studio and darkroom, which maintains his archive today. By the early 90s, Jansson had moved to Paris and established his career as an international fashion photographer working for magazines such as French Glamour, British Vogue, Italian Vogue, Numero, Arena Hommes Plus and Stockholm New, a magazine Jansson helped pioneer. It was during those years that he started a long-term collaboration with stylist Karl Templer who, in a 2008 interview for French GQ, stated that Jansson’s talent was limitless.

Jansson’s body of work places him at the intersection of analog film photography and the birth of digital. He achieved renown in the 90s for his accomplishments with film and was able to successfully transition to the new digital medium. Jansson has come full circle and is currently exploring the use of film in his latest work.

By now, Jansson had also established himself with an international roster of international brands such as Donna Karan, Tiffany & Co, Calvin Klein, Gap, Guerlain, Lancôme, Zegna, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Armani, Dior, Tod’s and Estée Lauder to name a few. He is currently commissioned for publications including Vogue, Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, W Magazine, Vogue Hommes International, i-D, Love, Pop, Another Magazine and V Magazine. These assignments include high profile celebrity features and include some of the most iconic talents of our time such as Jodie Foster, Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Sofia Coppola, Helen Mirren, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Marc Jacobs. The threads that tie Jansson’s work together are the women he portrays, paradoxically strong and vulnerable, such as Veruschka, Tatjana Patitz, Isabella Rossellini, Carolyn Murphy, Giselle Bundchen Raquel Zimmerman and more recently, Kendall Jenner. In Interview Magazine, model Daria Werbowy succinctly states: “you like women” and the accompanying images speak for themselves as they carry us to Jansson’s native Sweden and his beloved archipelago where he is able to connect with his roots and finds expression in the untouched landscapes and waterways that have been the subject of many films.

Projects
Jansson’s self titled book, Mikael Jansson, a retrospective of his earlier works, was published by Beaufort Press in 2000. Writer and journalist Claes Britton wrote in the foreword: “His visual expression is blessed with a rare virtue in modern photography: timelessness.” His interest in racing lead him to follow the Formula 1 circuit around the world, from 2003-2006 and resulted in a book titled Speed of Life, published by Steidl in 2007 with text by fashion historian Ulrich Lehmann. An exhibition was held for the book’s launch at Kulturhuset, in Stockholm. Never losing his devotion for music, Jansson photographed Iggy Pop in 2010 for a book project Iggy Pop, published by Gun Gallery in 2011. Throughout his career Jansson’s work has been exhibited widely, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris among many other museums around the world.

Jansson is represented worldwide by Annette Wenzel at Wenzel & Co.