Kary H. Lasch photography

Photographer • Stockholm, Sweden

Kary H. Lasch (1914–1993) was a Czech-born photographer who made Sweden his home and became one of the most distinctive chroniclers of post-war European culture. Based in Stockholm, Lasch photographed extensively across Europe and became particularly known for his portraits of artists, actors and cultural icons, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Federico Fellini. His photographs combine the elegance and glamour of the 1950s and 1960s with an unusually spontaneous and personal approach, often capturing famous subjects away from the formality of traditional portraiture.

A regular presence at the Cannes Film Festival for more than three decades, Lasch documented an extraordinary period in European film, art and celebrity culture. He left behind an archive of close to half a million photographs. The Kary H. Lasch Archive was acquired in 2019 by Michel Hjorth and Christer Löfgren, who have since worked extensively to preserve, organise and digitise his photographic legacy through The Kary H. Lasch Archive and Collection.

Discover the world of Kary H. Lasch

In 1955 Sophia Loren took the night train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Kary H. Lasch boarded the same train, bribed the conductor and photographed her getting dressed in her compartment. When they pulled into Stockholm Central the Swedish press were fighting for position on the platform while Lasch and Loren looked out of the window together. Five of those pictures are here.

He was born in Prague in 1914, came to Sweden in 1939 and stayed, ran a model scouting network from Stockholm and went to Cannes thirty years running. He left behind something close to six hundred thousand photographs. The Dalí portraits here are from the same decades.