Kjerstin Dellert
Kjerstin Dellert (b.1925) is one Sweden's most celebrated opera singers and currently director of the Royal Court Theater, Confidencen, in Stockholm. Since 1968 she has been married
to her second husband, Nils-Åke Häggbom, a former ballet-dancer with the Royal Opera in Stockholm.
Dellert made her debut at Stora Teatern (the old Gothenburg Opera stage) in Gothenburg in the 1950s. Until the 1970s, she worked primarily at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in a variety of leading operatic roles. Though officially retired from the Swedish Royal Opera since 1979, she made a critically acclaimed and highly popular return in 2005, as Maria Callas in the play Master Class by Terrence McNally, staged at Confidencen. Her TV shows in Sweden consistently receive top ratings and she regularly enjoys standing ovations for her appearances at the Royal Court Theatre.
Now 83, Kjerstin's latest CD release features songs for the Tango.
What is the first photographic image you remember?
The one that made the strongest impression was when they released the horrible images from the liberation of the concentration camps, Bergen Belsen and Auschwitz. That opened up a black hole, and made me realise the capacity of human destruction and cruelty.
In your professional life you have been much photographed. Do you have a favourite image of yourself?
Yes, the one I have chosen to represent me now, where you see me as I look today, in the winter of my life. It’s the picture that represents me today and will be on the cover of my latest CD album to be released this year.
As an art form – what does photography mean to you?
I believe that photography is the natural development of painting. It is the media of our time.
Do you collect fine art in any format? Would you consider buying photographs in this way?
In the home I share with my husband I only have photographs from our careers - and when it comes to art photography, I have the pictures my son has given me.
What photographic images would you consider important to you?
Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s pictures from her project Ecce Homo.
Do you own a camera? Do you actively take photographs?
I have only an Instamatic for amateurs like me. And it’s only to photograph my cats and dogs in funny positions. I love animals.
If you think about the art of the photograph, is there one single image that springs to mind?
Yes, the picture by Lennart Nilsson of the Embryo. That was fantastic to be able to see for the first time a photograph from all our first beginnings of life.
There has been a tremendous resurgence in Scandinavian photography, it now has a presence all over the world. Do you have a view on this, or any photographer/artists you particularly favour?
I think the serene nakedness, the search for truth in Scandinavian photography, is making it stand out - as well as the Nordic approach when it comes to beauty. One of the photographers that certainly opened new doors was the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm. His many times gruesome images shoked me, but slowly made me start seeing life differently.
Is photography really the essential art of our modern times?
Yes, I think so. Because today we are surrounded by all kind of images - more than ever. Young people today read less, but consume pictures all day. Their life is, in many cases, pure image.
If we could magically transport you anywhere, to any point in time, to take a single photograph – where would it be?
I would like to be there to take the last picture of the earth before its destruction. Who would ever see the image will remain the question..!
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