Fashion houses such as Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Givenchy, Gucci, Hermès, H&M, Levis, Nike, Emanuel Ungaro and Puma, all hired him for their campaigns and he’s been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Pop, Visionaire, V and W and Vogue Nippon. Sundsbø also designed an album cover for Coldplay.
Sundsbø’s works are innovative and provocatively experimental. His bold use of colour and projected light is very unusual. Sometimes, he turns the models into a pattern, creating a whole new dimension; covers their faces with a net or uses them as a multidimensional canvas.
He’s not shy about using digital technology and manipulates images ‘all the time’, explaining that ‘reality is great but limiting. To use your fantasy and imagination is always very exciting.’ He also experiments with 3D scanners and says he loves ‘technological representation of humanity. How we use machines to make images of our own species and this is by far the most interesting technology in this respect. I hope that I will do more of this.’
‘Reality is great but limiting. To use your fantasy and imagination is always very exciting’
His first solo art exhibition was in early 2008 in Spring Studios where he selected photographs from his advertising campaigns and gave them a new life as artworks. More recently, at Collete in Paris, he’s shown an extraordinary selection of photos and videos of small exotic parrots (parroquets) flying. The rich colours of parrots’ feathers are astounding, not unsimilar to high fashion creations. ‘I have a curious mind and wanted to see what they looked like when you froze the motion of flight. The colours and the grace of the birds gave it a life I did not expect when I first photographed them.’
What made him trespass into the area of art? The first time he showed his works in the art context was at the Florence Biennale, with Alexander McQueen. ‘The outcome was a bit frustrating - I did not get to see the finished project as I could not get to the exhibition. It was a film of a swimmer in a McQueen dress, projected on a screen with water running over it. It made me hungry for more!’
‘Inspiration is everywhere if you look for it!’
Sundsbø takes his inspiration ‘from everywhere and anywhere. It can be from the clothes, from music, from a character, from a reflection in a window, from a film. Inspiration is everywhere if you look for it!’ He is quite spontaneous, even when it comes to preparing for his shoots which are sometimes ‘very planned, but you still hope that accident will happen that will guide you in different direction. That is always the most exciting.’
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Prague born Michaela is an MA graduate of Goldsmith’s College, London. She was an editor at Momentum publishing (specialist art books) for Flowers East and is currently London bureau chief for Prague Metro; a curator at Divus Publishing; and deputy editor of PHOTOICON.
