- NameDawid
- Activity/Titlephotographer
- Sexmale
- Variant namesegentligt namn: Björn Dawidsson
- Nationality/DatesSwedish, born 1949
BiographyDawid (Björn Dawidsson, born 1949) is deemed one of Sweden’s foremost photographers and was one of the first to work with conceptual photography. He made his debut in 1973, but his definitive breakthrough came a decade later with the exhibition Rost (Rust) at the photography museum Fotografiska museet (now an integrated part of Moderna Museet). At the time he demonstrated, as he did later, how the apparently banal in a rusty, bent nail can be transformed into something unique and artistically expressive. Since then in his works Dawid has stretched time-honoured concepts and the limits of what can be seen as photographic art. Given his tendency towards non-figurative art, at times he has been interested in the photogram, a simple technique that Man Ray from the US and Swede Olle Nyman were working with back in the 1920s and 1930s which involves placing objects straight onto the copying paper, which is then lit. Apparently trivial objects emit an enigmatic, almost magical, power.
Although Dawid is mainly associated with a kind of avant-garde and abstract photography, he has also produced many powerful, empathetic and sympathetic portraits. The more unusual among them include his innovative portrait of H. M. the King of Sweden (2005) [Inventory number NMGrh 5112] which was used as the original for a stamp the next year to celebrate the King’s 60th birthday. Despite its contemporary look, here Dawid is returning to the classic portrait of a ruler in profile whose roots go back far into the mists of antiquity.