Martin Torsleff

Pablo Picasso once said, in an interview with Life Magazine in the 1950's, that 'a photographer is a painter in disguise.'
Martin Torsleff's background as a commercial photographer does evoke certain ... reminders of this gifted quotation: The position as a qualified photographer is obviously more relevant for Torsleff than formal credentials from a well-known Academy of Fine Arts.
But Torsleff bears the mark of the true artist; he can't help being creative. 'I Must!' could be an alternative motto for this tall, blond Scandinavian, though his primary motto is radiance and accuracy.

His technique might for some seem old-fashioned - his studio bears a distinct scent of Oil and Canvas - but it is this insistence on making the exact statement with more traditional materials that shows his distance from certain 'Cash and Carry'-painters - and the concept of originality was exactly what struck me the most when I crossed the threshold to his studio in a bustling, but at the same time picturesque part of Torsleff's hometown, Aarhus:
A large portrait of Louis Armstrong is quite conspicuous. It is almost as if Torsleff simply is too big for smaller rooms. He is apparently very fascinated by the human face - and hereunder, if not famil...

Commercial Photographer