CHAPTER       TATIANA IMAGES       ABOUT THE BOOK
      JULIA WESTON

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Read  a page from Chapter 2 about the arrival of Tatiana.

Here are a couple of Sven’s images of Tatiana. More in the book and at the coming exhibition.

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Tatianas last day in Sweden.

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About the book

by George McDowell

Sven usually travelled abroad for his vacations and taking his cameras with him, he always found someone or something interesting to shoot. But during 1962, things took a different turn and this time the exciting opportunities came to Sweden for a change.

Besides shooting Tatiana, Sven had also met Edna Winters, a make-up artist, who also happened to be the co-owner of the Framed Fame Studios in New York (along with her husband Alan). Her grand parents were from Mora, in Sweden, and she often spent some of her summer vacation visiting their home and meeting her relatives.
Edna was fascinated by the work of Anders Zorn, a famous and influential Swedish artist, and she had always dreamed of being painted, or photographed, in a similar fashion to his female subjects – known as ‘Kullor’ – a moniker for Swedish women who came from the area of Dalarna.

Edna and Sven had already met in New York during 1956, where they worked on a few sessions together, so they were well acquainted enough for her to contact him and he was more than happy to partake in another shoot with her.

Sven checked out some locations in Djurgården and the pair then headed off to the beautiful parks for a session. Edna was an exciting subject, although the mix of ‘American star’ and ‘Kulla’ proved a rather strange combination.

During the shoot Sven was assisted by Roger Vedin, who captured some behind the scenes footage, including the image of Sven’s ’mini’ large format camera – Birgit.

In 1964 Sven returned to New York. He loved everything that the city visually had to offer and always enjoyed being around the people at the Framed Fame Studio, as there was always something new and exciting happening there.
One day he had the opportunity to watch a commercial for a hotel being made. The Ansonia had been built in 1904 and the film was to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
On opening, it had been the largest hotel in the world, with more than 1200 rooms and 200 suites, as well as being an almost totally self-sufficient enterprise. There was a rooftop farm with around 500 chickens, plus ducks, cows, goats and even a small bear. A special cattle elevator had even been installed at the hotel in order to cater for this menagerie.

For this commercial, the hotel had rebuilt the original fountain in the lobby, along with the addition of live seals that had originally graced the structure.
Sven was not allowed to shoot anything, he could only look on and absorb the incredible sights and sounds that took place before him.

However, after the shoot was completed, Sven found the scriptwriter, Julianne Westwood, quietly sitting outside on a hotel baggage cart – along with one of the seals, which was looking rather sorry for himself.
Julianne did not see Sven, as he quietly hid behind a pillar and took a snapshot of the pair, using his Franka Rolfix II that he always kept hidden in his inner jacket pocket.
Sven then walked over and struck up a conversation. Julianne went on to tell him about her weakness for animals and how she felt so sorry for the seals on the shoot – even though they received a huge amount of fish for their trouble.

Sven saw something in her and in the way she dressed and held herself, that made him want to take more pictures. Happily, when asked to take part in a shoot, Julianne agreed and they fixed a session for the next day at the Framed Fame Studios.
When Deborah Maywald (the studio’s main owner) saw the results, along with all the beautiful modern clothes Julianne owned, she immediately contacted an agent from Vogue, who also proved to be as enamored with the images as she was. However, nothing came of their meeting – at least not immediately.

Five months later, Sven was shocked when a painted version of one of his images of Julianne appeared on the cover of the September edition of British Vogue, with an advert on the back of the magazine also featuring a portrait of his discovery.

Sven was overjoyed for Julianne but also rather angry, as he had neither given permission for the publishing of the images nor been consulted on their use. However, this anger soon dissipated once he was later, rather handsomely, compensated for his work and its inclusion in the publication.

These, along with many more stories, are all available in the third book about Sven Boqvist, The photographic adventures 1962-1966

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JULIA WESTON

Julia Weston, actress that Sven met in Paris 1957. Here in London 1966.

Article about Julia, that features one of Sven’s images.