We meet at Skeppsholmen, a little island in the centre of Stockholm, where Jeppe Wikström runs the Max Ström publishing house together with Marika Stolpe. The island is full of culture, with Sweden’s museum of
modern art, Moderna Museet, as well as the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities and the Royal University College of Fine Arts.
 

An interview with photographer Dawid (Björn Dawidsson), by Anette Sallmander

Photo© Björn Dawidsson

Born in 1949, and known only as Dawid, he is
one of the first photographers to stage exhibitions with only photographs at the popular art venue in Stockholm, Liljevalchs, in 1971.

I got my second name a couple of years ago on a trip to Paris. Usually, when I’m in Stockholm, I’m without makeup, wear workout clothes for rehearsals and exercising. I save the fancy dresses and makeup for my performances. However, this special night in Paris, we went to Hotel Costes, my man and me. I was in a theatrical performance, playing the Gautier catwalk girl in a short skirt, high heels and red lipstick. My best friend had recently met a new love whom she had told about me, her bohemian woman friend. We were to dine together after the performance. Yet, when I entered the restaurant, they did not recognize me in my Gautier persona. After introductions, my husband asked all of us what we wanted to drink. I pulled off my long glove, stretched my hand up in the air, and said “Champagne!” as if there could be no question about it, and slunk into the red velvet armchair. “Enchanté, nice to meet you, Björn”, I said to the love of my friend. “Nice to meet you, Champagne”, he replied.

Swedish Åke E:son Lindman, born in Stockholm but brought up in Luleå in the Swedish north, is the most reputed architectural photographer in the Nordic countries. He is modest but not ‘lagom’, a Swedish expression for a state of being and a way of evaluating things as good, not too little, not too much.