KG Kristoffersson, legendary press photographer.
Young photographer.
Kristoffersson began as an unpaid photography apprentice with photographer Staffan Kronberg at Gumaelius advertising agency in Stockholm. He then worked as a photographer at the photo agency Telegrafbild in 1938. In 1939 he started his own company Svenskt Bildreportage with offices on Vasagatan near the then newspaper district in Klara. His interest in film and theater meant that he followed film shoots and did celebrity reports for, among others, Filmjournalen and other weekly newspapers. He was a theater photographer for five Stockholm theaters.
The Finnish Winter War.
Already a war photographer at the age of 21. He was a photographer during journalist legend Barbro Alving's trip to the front and the Mannerheim Line at the Karelian Isthmus during the ongoing Finnish Winter War in December 1939. Pictures that later ended up in the photo magazine Se.
See photographer.
Se was a Swedish photo magazine, started by newspaper legend Carl-Adam Nycop in 1938. The magazine became known for publishing images from the best press photographers of the time. The creative editor Nycop bought many of Kristoffersson's images and reports. Everything from Lill Lindfors and Lill-babs to documentary reports about life in Sweden. On May 7, 1945, he was on Kungsgatan in Stockholm and took the classic pictures of the peace celebration with happy people celebrating the end of World War II.
He meets Nobel laureates.
After the Second World War, Kristoffersson traveled around England in September 1945 and photographed for three months. An England under construction and people who had risen from the ashes. In Coventry, he documented the bombed-out city. He took the opportunity to meet and photograph Nobel Prize winner Alexander Fleming. A classic photo reportage of one of the world's most talked-about men.
Ingmar Bergman films.
During the 1940s and 1950s, he was a frequently hired photographer on film sets and at private theaters. He photographed during the filming of Swedish feature films. An example is Ingmar Bergman's film Music in the Dark. The book Regi Bergman is an example where his photos of Ingmar Bergman have been published.
The Swedish football professionals in Italy.
During one of his many reporting trips, he follows the legendary football trio GreNoLi. A series of photos of the players that all football-interested Swedes worshipped. Kristoffersson also took the opportunity to meet the Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida, resulting in a beautiful photo report.
Cover of Life magazine.
A picture he took of the photo model Haide Göransson was bought by the American photo magazine Life and published on the cover of the October issue in 1949. For the fee, he was the first Swedish photographer to purchase the most modern photographic equipment at the time, an electron flash unit from the USA.
In the fifties.
Kristoffersson's book She, the Camera and I was published in 1955. He shares his solid technical knowledge about everything from camera selection to shutter speeds. Lavishly illustrated with his own pictures of women he has photographed. There he describes lighting and how to best choose suitable environments. Anita Ekberg gets a spread with pictures taken in 1951, the same year she won the Miss Sweden beauty contest.
Books and exhibitions.
Kristoffersson contributed his photos to the encyclopedia Myggans nöjeslexikon where his photos illustrated keywords and personalities. His photos of the pop group ABBA were published in ABBA The photo book published by Max Ström förlag.
Kristoffersson is probably one of Sweden's most productive photographers. Images from the image archive he left behind are widely used in Swedish newspapers and books. There are countless unique motifs with high editorial value. KG Kristoffersson was born on May 15, 1918, died December 10, 2011.