Hidden in plain sight

The late Christer Strömholm captured The Pale Lady in 1959, and the equally cryptic and iconic portrait has appeared on scores of magazine and book covers ever since its rise to fame half a century ago.

WORDS: ERIK SEDIN, PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTER STRÖMHOLM

Around 20 years after the picture was taken, the photo paper manufacturer Orwo used made-up development notes from Strömholm in a commercial. Demands of making the face a lot brighter and the eyebrows and lashes darker, are some of the notes.

Strömholm’s photography is distinguishable for its hard black and white compositions, and The Pale Lady is frequently used as a hero image in the presentation of international exhibitions. She also graced the cover of the influential photography magazine Camera for the September, 1980 issue (the Swiss magazine’s only issue exclusively dedicated to one photographer). But who exactly is the woman with the compelling gaze?

Like Strömholm himself, the story of The Pale Lady is shrouded in mystery and contradictions — the only thing we know for certain is that there are no certainties. Strömholm was an adventurous soul with an insatiable curiosity. He was constantly on the move, visiting and living in new countries since his late teens, always accompanied by the camera around his neck. When asked about his dramatic life and equally dramatic photographs, the mysterious Strömholm would give varying answers. Some would argue that the constant stimulation might have clouded his memories, while others see him as a sophisticated prankster, always ready to stir the pot and add some extra seasoning.

“You should definitely take most stories with a grain of salt” — JOAKIM STRÖMHOLM

Regarding the back story of The Pale Lady in particular, the international publishing house Phaidon, has it that she is a transsexual woman. A statement that is contested by Strömholm’s son, the photographer Joakim Strömholm. “That is not the case,” he says, “The Pale Lady was a brothel madam from Barcelona, where the picture was taken,” he reveals.

Christer told the magazine FOTO in 1997 that he met the woman at an afternoon brothel, where he nervously asked for a picture of the intimidating and authoritarian madam. She responded by dragging him by the crotch to a private room, where Christer was so scared that his trembling hands managed to capture only one clear and in-focus picture on the whole film roll — the famous picture we’ve come to know. “The problem is that I’ve seen all the negatives from that roll of film... the woman poses with a hand fan in a very relaxed way. He loved to create myths and never ever proofread any of his quotes, on the contrary, he spread misinformation regarding his art on purpose,” Joakim explains, and adds, “you should definitely take most stories with a pinch of salt.”

The 1997 twelfth issue of FOTO with the text ”The truth about the pale lady”, in which Strömholm diluted the rumours of the image.

Joakim says that only a few people can manoeuvre through his father’s labyrinth of creativity. Christer’s former assistants and Joakim’s brother Jakob are probably the ones who can debunk most myths, by analysing all the negatives that never got developed and published. The negatives show how Christer had approached the brothel madame, who he had spotted a couple of times prior to shooting the portrait, during his many visits in Barcelona working as a tour guide. Something about the woman had caught his attention. “The woman has a very strong personality, the portrait shows this, but the very dramatic contrast of her white skin and the dark blacks in the hair, eyes and eyebrows don’t come from makeup. I’ve seen the vintage print and the woman just looks like “The Grey Lady” in that version. My theory is that someone messed up the development process, turning the woman from grey to pale when contrasting the whites and blacks.” So, until the next myth is debunked about The Pale Lady, we can assume that Christer Strömholm encountered the charismatic woman during one of his many guided tours through the streets of Barcelona and that her singular paleness came from a Freudian slip in the lightroom.