Arild Kristo (May 17, 1939 – July 7, 2010) was a Norwegian photographer, graphic designer, actor and filmmaker. He was considered one of the most creative photographers and filmmakers in Norway during the sixties, but also one of the most rejected.
Early life
Arild Kristo, born in Oslo, was the son of the cabaret singer and writer Einar Kristoffersen. At the age of 18 he enrolled on a commercial trade ship, spent a few months in New York and was offered a job as a sailor by the photographer Finn Bergan in the remake of
Windjammer.
Kristo got photographic education at
ArtCenter College of Design
Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California.
History
ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School.
In 1935, Fred ...
and received a letter of recommendation by the editor Richard Pollard at
Life (magazine).
Career
In Paris 1961 Arild Kristo took one of his most appreciated and highly priced photographs, ''The portrait painter on Montmartre'', now in the collection of the Norwegian National museum.
Back in Oslo, he formed the picture agency
Manité with the photographers Robert A. Robinson and Dan Young.
In Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie he discovered the boy Manfred Stein, who played the lead in Kristo's first experiment in
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
. The series was purchased by
Look (American magazine) and later was published in 17 other countries.
In 1966 he created the short film ''Undergrunnen / The Underground'', a modernist view of the Oslo subway and the people using it. The film got big impact in the
art film community and was invited to film festivals all over the world. Another short film ''Kristoball'' (1967) was directed before Arild Kristo made his feature film debut.
Eddie og Suzanne
''Eddie og Suzanne'' ( en, Eddie and Suzanne}) is a 1975 Norwegian drama film written and directed by Arild Kristo, starring Sverre Horge and Yvonne Sparrbåge. The film, a road movie inspired by such films as Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie El ...
, a
road movie with a love theme, took six years to complete but landed 1975 in a critic and audience success. Sixteen years later, Kristo made an animated short film called ''Mirakelet / The Miracle'', which depicted the difficulty of funding his films.
As an actor, he participated in six films, studied
method acting at the National Film Center in Oslo, and for Professor
Marketa Kimbrell
Marketa Kimbrell (née Nitschová; August 1, 1928 – July 6, 2011) was a Czechoslovakian-born American actress and professor of acting and film directing.
In 1970, she and actor Richard Levy founded the New York Street Theater Caravan, a theat ...
at the
New York University.
In 2010, Marthe Stokvik produced the documentary ''The World of Arild Kristo'' for the film company Laterna Magica.
Filmography
As director
* 1966: ''Undergrunnen'' (12 min.)
* 1967: ''Kristoball'' (11 min.)
* 1975: ''Eddie og Suzanne'' (89 min.)
* 1991: ''Mirakelet'' (13 min.)
As actor
* 1987: ''
Over grensen'' as a security head
Permanent collections
* ''The Portrait Artist on Montmartre'',
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway.
Awards
*World Press Photo, 1963.
References
External links
Arild Kristo official websiteImdb: Arild KristoFilmarkivet: Arild KristoFilmens Hus Oslo: Arild Kristo utställning 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristo, Arild
1939 births
2010 deaths
Photographers from Oslo