Venezia 1957 - The Penn Pals - The Story and Images of Sven Boqvist

In May, 1957, Sven followed Tatiana Baronova from Paris to the Cannes Film Festival, where ”Hello París” was nominated and featured some spectacular dance scenes with her. Sven took the
opportunity to shoot a lot during that week. And that is featured in the book, ”Paris & Cote d’Azur”.What we did not know then, was that Tatiana was scheduled to work in Venice the week after the film festival, and that Sven went along, as they had a really special relationship, that started in New York the year before.So while in Venice, he got his hands on a lot of different cameras ( provided by Manini Fashion) and did some tests both here and there. And the obvious motif, was Tatiana, and parts of Venice. So he followed her to the opera, the jazz opera and had rides with gondolas.Tatiana was invited by Manini Fashion, the Jazz Opera Society and also scheduled to hold some ballet classes at the smaller Opera house. That’s where he got this image where he wanted an unusual angle.

Here are the stairs leading up to their hotel rooms. 4th floor, no elevator.

One of the reasons that the trip and images of Venice were discovered, was when an old issue (1962) of the Swedish magazine, Svensk Damtidning was found that had an article about Tatiana, as well as a sort of fashion image with a dress from Manini Fashion. It was published in 1962. And that was the reason that new questions was asked about Tatiana and Sven, so he revealed the not known story about Venice. Tatiana was not a fashion model, but some companies like Manini used her celebrity status to get some extra attention.

One day when they arrived to their favorite dinner place, with a gondola, Tatiana dropped her handbag into the water. And Sven was fast with his camera.

At some rehearsals for the Jazz Opera show with Tommy Watson Trio Sven got the opportunity to see Tatiana in masks and other stuff. Here is one of the portraits he took.

Being at this famous scene in Venice, Sven wanted a wide image, so he made a triptyk panorama to get as much of the surroundings as possible, without having to step back, loosing some depth of field. This is one of the images from the upcoming exhibition at Galleri Browalls. That will be the start of the Venezia exhibition. Click on image to see how it looks like there.

Sven and Tatiana had the pleasure to live in an exclusive castle hotel for two days. This because of an accident in a gondola, which revealed some hidden objects in what seemed to be just a wood part. A key and two coins, elderly. The owner of the gondola was very sad as the gondola was very old and worth a lot, but he was also curious to find out where the key would fit. He asked Sven and Tatiana to help him look. They got excited and after an hour of looking, and asking him about the history of this gondola they finally found a locker, inside another locker. And in there was 50 golden old coins worth a fortune. The owner was surprised and very happy, as he now thought he could retire and also fix the gondola, that had been in his family for 9 generations.At the castle Sven could take some time to try some color images.

.And here is a portrait taken at the cemetery island, San Michele, located in the lagoon close to Venice. While exploring the city and surroundings, at times with some outfits, supplied by man ini Fashion, there were many photos taken.

Below is the poster for the jazz opera and the article with a shot by Sven at a rehearsal with the large marionettes. And Tatiana’s remarkable choreography on the wood poles.

A snippet from Tatianas Theme from the Jazz Opera, rerecording from 1979, by Tony Watson.

Tatianas Theme

And a snippet from a live recording 1957, at the start of the jazzopera. Tatianas moves are symbols of memories of the past, and different emotions are made clear by musical letters.
Memories Medley