Mikael Jansson

Mikael Jansson’s passion for photography began as a teenager in Stockholm in the late 1970s. While photographing the leading musicians who came through the city, Jansson assisted Carl Johann Ronn and was introduced to the histories and possibilities of the medium. In the mid 1980s, Jansson arrived in New York with the determined purpose to assist in Richard Avedon’s studio where he worked for two years, including darkroom printing Avedon’s influential exhibition In the American West (1985). The lineage of Avedon in Jansson’s approach to photography is still present with his curiosity and celebration of the characters and subjects he has photographed over the past four decades, and a unique ability to capture the moment.

Since the 1990s, Mikael Jansson has created era-defining images, working with innovative publications and fashion houses. In Dutch magazine in 1998, Jansson garnered international attention when he published a eighty-two page portfolio of nude portraits with respective fashion “credits” that made a nod to Andy Warhol. He is renowned for his photographic signature both in the studio and on location.

His enduring images are found in publications including AnOther Magazine, Arena Homme +, Dazed, Harper’s Bazaar, M le Magazine du Monde, Perfect Magazine, Visionnaire, Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris, Vogue US, British Vogue, L’Uomo Vogue, W Magazine, and WSJ. Magazine. Jansson’s impressive list of fashion, luxury, and beauty clients include Bulgari, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Chloé, Christian Dior, Coach, Dsquared2, Ermenegildo Zegna, Estée Lauder, Giorgio Armani, Givenchy, Guerlain, H&M, Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Lancôme, Longchamp, Louis Vuitton, Revlon, Rolex, Salvatore Ferragamo, Shiseido, Tiffany & Co, Tod’s, and fragrances by Burberry, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Givenchy, Jil Sander, and Salvatore Ferragamo. The cultural significance of Mikael Jansson’s fashion photography is recognized by his inclusion in the most prestigious exhibitions exploring the genre since the mid 1990s. Jansson has contributed to seminal fashion photography exhibitions held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fotografiska and the Moderne Museet, Stockholm; ICA, Boston; the Saatchi Gallery, London and Kulturhuset, Stockholm. Jansson has published four books — Mikael Jansson (2000), Speed of Life (2007), Iggy Pop (2010), and Witnesses (2018).