PHOTOGRAPHER ROLAND THYSELL

CURRENT & UPCOMING

EXHIBITION

PÅSKUTSTÄLLNING
Museum Gösta Werner

Simrishamn

An exhibition together with works from  Torsten Erasmie (1950 – 2018) and Gösta Werner opening on Good Friday, open until april 7 (daily 13–17). Grand opening on  Maundy Thursday 15–17.  Welcome!

Read more on the official website right here.

EARLIER EXHIBITION

ROLAND THYSELL
Sin Paradise Freedom

Trelleborg • Sweden

“The exhibition takes you on a photographic journey through time and space, from the year 1955 and onward. Photographer Roland Thysell creates unforgettable images filled with temperament, rhythm and originality.”

Read the entire press release here.

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE

ROLAND THYSELL
Sin Paradise Freedom

[ Available now! ]

Available for purchase at the exhibition in Trelleborg between  2.12 2023 – 28.1 2024 and directly from me upon request.

FILM

A film about Roland Thysell - from the exhibition Sin Paradise Freedom

The film was created as a part of the exhibition in Trelleborg and is just over 20 minutes long. Audio and texts are in Swedish.

See the complete film right here.

VERNISSAGE
DECEMBER 2 – 12:00

Trelleborg Museum

OPEN FOR ALL

Join us for the grand opening of the exhibition at Trelleborg museum 12:00 on the 2nd of December. Welcome!

THE MUSIC OF SIN PARADISE FREEDOM

The official playlist

GET INTO THE RIGHT MOOD

Listen to the official playlist of the exhibition in Trelleborg with music curated by Roland himself. The playlist is available right here.

A SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS

PHOTOS

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER
KIVIK 1967
ÅLAMÖRKER
RODEO
TRAVELS
MUSIC
LANDSCAPES
PARADISE

THE STORY

The year was 1967.

Ingmar Bergman held a lecture at Fotoskolan KV at Stockholms Universitet.

I was 21 years and I was there! A small boy from Anderslöv with eyes like saucers and ears big as an elephants.

Ingmar’s gaze was intense, so he began:


“When I was young, everything was either black or white.
When it was black I was down with the devil and it was hot as hell ….


When it was white, I flew up to God and heard all the angels’ beautiful music ….


Today, I have learned to appreciate the beauty in the different shades of gray.”

FROM THE BEGINNING

My first contact and the fascination of images began in the late 50’s and TV’s childhood. And with the curiosity from one who just recently became a teenager I managed to nag myself to stand behind the studio camera at one of Lasse Holmqvist’s nationwide chronicles. That ignited my interest in the images, which later on developed to a focus on stills.

A couple of years later, at the age of 15, my dreams were fulfilled when I got the opportunity to assist the hot-shot fashion photographer Claes Lewenhaupt and his wife Tonie. Claes was considered to be the ”master of lights” and Tonie one of Sweden’s leading fashion journalists. At that time they rented Markiehage Mansion just outside Anderslöv in the south of Sweden where they created 6-8 paged features in Femina presenting the established designer Katja of Sweden. There, in my own neighbourhood, I participated in creating well-known masterpieces in the history of Swedish fashion photography.

A little later, when I was 17, I used photograph at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen and sell those pictures of famous musicians, among others Dexter Gordon, to the Swedish tabloids.

And so in 1967, I was admitted to Fotoskolan KV at the Stockholm University, on a free quota thanks to my pictures. It was common that only 5 of 100 was admitted to the school on the “free quota”, and normally it took several years of practice to pass. It was a 3-year education directed by Sweden’s most renowned photographer, Christer Strömholm. We also had well-know artists as Carl-Johan de Geer and his wife Marie-Louise as teachers.

13 years of age and already a cameraman Photo: Sydsvenskans Bildarkiv
Tonie & Claes Lewenhaupt
Chasing new angles – 1967

IT REALLY TOOK OFF IN THE 60s

Self-portrait from during my studies
Another selfie – 2014

During my studies I even managed to get pictures published in photo-magazines like Foto and Populär Fotografi. And when I graduated from Fotoskolan more than 70% of my fellow students, who had once started this education, had dropped out. But I kept going!

My practice in the daily-press took place at Ystad’s Allehanda. At that time they had not begun to print in offset so all images must be rasterized. Offset came to YA at the end of my internship and made it possible to present to the readers large pitched photo stories.

In one of the article’s in 1967 I got the opportunity to make a big story on the eel-fishermen in Skateholm and Hörte, just west of fishing village Abbekås on the Swedish south-coast. This feature article, almost 50 years later, is on an exhibition tour and will soon be published as a book.

This period of my life was a lovely time with wonderful colleagues and workmates. Maybe because it was in the late 60s.

CV ROLAND THYSELL

EDUCATION

1961 INTERNSHIP WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS CLAËS & TONIE LEWENHAUPT

1966 – 1969 THE KV SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF CHRISTER STRÖMHOLM

1967 INTERNSHIP AT YSTADS ALLEHANDA, A LOCAL NEWSPAPER

PHOTOGRAPHIC ART

FOR PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES

HAS BEEN REPRESENTED BY

BUKOWSKIS, BUKOWSKIS MARKET, STOCKHOLMS AUKTIONSVERK, MAGASIN 5 AND LAURITZ

MAGAZINES

POPULÄR FOTOGRAFI, FOTO AND INDUSTRIA

A selfie from 1961

EXHIBITIONS

AXEL EBBES, KÖPMANNAMAGASINET IN SMYGEHAMN AND STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL FAIR TOGETHER WITH SVEN LUNDH’S SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FURNITURE FROM KÄLLEMO

2015 KONSTRUNDAN AT HOLMÅKRA GALLERI

12 SEPTEMBER – 8 NOVEMBER 2015. SOLO EXHIBITION “EEL SEASON” AT TRELLEBORG MUSEUM

2015. LJUSSTRÅLAR MED MINA ÖGON. LIMITED EDITION PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK, NUMBERED AND SIGNED. 100 COPIES. SOLD OUT.

2015. MALMÖ PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY ( FFIM) ’ S ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR A DESERVING PHOTOGRAPHER

2017. ST. NICOLAI CHURCH. SPIRITUAL IMAGES – INSTALLATION

2019. A SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM CENTRAL STAT ION AND SKYSCRAPERS IN NEW YORK. MUSIC VIDEO IN COLLABORATION WITH SAXOPHONIST ROLAND KIRK

2020. PHOTOS IN PUBLIC SPACES, AND IN APARTMENTS, FAMILJENS HUS IN ANDERSLÖV

2023. TRELLEBORG LIBRARY IN ANDERSLÖV, CONFERENCE ROOM

2 DECEMBER 2023 – 28 JANUARY 2024. SOLO EXHIBITION AT TRELLEBORG MUSEUM SIN – PARADISE – FREEDOM.

OLIVER LAZAREVSKI AT THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AT THE TRELLEBORG MUNICIPALITY HAS PRODUCED A FILM SHOWN AT “ BIAN ” DURING THE EXHIBITION PERIOD.

A LIMITED EDITION BOOK , NUMBERED AND SIGNED, WITH 150 COPIES IN SWEDISH AND 50 COPIES IN ENGLISH, IS BEING PUBLISHED IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXHIBITION.

TRUE FRIENDS & MEMORIES

BEAMING, BRILLIANT, LUMINOUS

When Sven Lundh, sent the word EFFULGENT – meaning Beaming, Brilliant, Luminous – it opened up a new code of signals within me. It felt like a strong beeping from a broadcast. I felt that my story about the life was like a jigsaw puzzle with lots of fragments. I had trouble sleeping – went through the story of my life – in my pictures. Or more specific 1000’s of analogue and digital images, from 1964 to 2011. I chose some 40 images showing the life in different shades. A life returning to a perpetual rebirth. All humans emit signals – radio waves. We communicate with the variable quality living on the earth and in the universe. With beams and signals. It’s great to be affected by radiation and signals.

 

SVEN LUNDH

When coming to interpreting the object’s significance, Sven Lundh is a big personality. He is gifted with a permanent youth, despite his 89 years of age. He possesses an unbeatable force field of energy and commitment.
Transforming furniture into art objects and art objects into furniture requires a master like Sven. No other person has woven so much information and communication in his objects. To talk with artists about an object to fit into production, without losing its soul, requires a person with a magic formula. Sven mastered the whole range from sketching, material sense, production, completion design and presentation. Sven’s personality has a way of listening as a warm mentor inspiring their birds to take off. To challenge the thin ice to see if it really carries. Going that extra mile to reach a new step on the ladder of life. I sincerely appreciate the warmth and encouragement that Sven has given me during our three exhibitions together.

Fredrik " Figge" Roos Foto: Sydsvenskans Bildarkiv

FREDRIK “FIGGE” ROOS

Another person who I appreciated very much was Fredrik Roos. Frederick’s personality was captivating. His sense of direct communication with the art made him a prodigy. What a gift!


He initiated me into his way of approaching art and gave me a new dimension. Lasker, Kiefer, Hooper, Rauchberg among many others. I remember once when we were dining at Rolf’s Kök and I told him that I intended to produce an installation with fragments of different material. He encouraged me to study Kiefer deeper before I began. Frederick was on to me several times that when his own art-museum Rooseum once opened he wanted us to do a solo show together with my photos. Frederick was also sincerely happy to be able to introduce his new recruit, Lars Nittve. to me as the head of Rooseum. 

Fredrik and my conversations circled around everything from the meaning of art, to what the space contains of and what really is outside there in the Universe. I miss Fredrik a lot and specially his signals of the image and the art that I always will carry with me.

Figge taught me to always try to think the opposite.

“Rolle have you ever noticed that if you do this instead…”

Just one of his quotes that still sticks with me every day.