Carl Abrahamsson

Two new Trapart Books available now!

July 1, 2016

Two very special treats are now available from Trapart Books. The first one, which is in stock right now, is California Infernal – Anton LaVey & Jayne Mansfield as portrayed by Walter Fischer. This is an amazing photo book with pictures taken by German paparazzo Walter Fischer during his time in California during the 1950s-70s. Movie star Jayne Mansfield and notorious Satanist Anton LaVey met in 1966. Both were publicity conscious and made the most of the meetings, which evolved into friendship. Almost always present was German paparazzo Walter Fischer, stationed in Hollywood and catering to image- and scandal-hungry photo magazines all over the world. Fischer’s unique collection of photos takes us straight into the ritual chamber of the Church of Satan in LaVey’s infamous “black house” in San Francisco, as well as into Mansfield’s Hollywood “pink palace”. We also get to follow LaVey on excursions to his friend Forrest “Famous Monsters of Filmland” Ackerman, to...

Filming with Gea Philes

June 29, 2016

On a recent trip to New York I filmed some interviews with the wonderful Chilean-American artist Gea Philes. This will be used in my An Art Apart series of artists’ portraits. Her delightfully kinky drawings of girls in various degrees of distress, dominance and depraved debauchery are so great someone should turn them into a book. Oh wait, Timeless just did! Their edition of Gea’s Penetralia book is so beautiful and well produced that it needs to be on every genuinely kinky bookshelf. With inspiration from people like Trevor Brown and Stu Mead, Gea has developed a style of her own in both form and content. The result is a wild and crazy trip into kinky girl-land. What’s not to like? The interviews reveal a lot about Gea’s creative processes and I look forward to sharing them in this as yet untitled documentary film, to be released in 2017. For now, you should get her book and also check out her site.

Peter Beard is the multi-dimensional real deal

June 28, 2016

To see Peter Beard’s artworks in the flesh is so different from watching them reproduced (no matter how well reproduced). The level of vibration is of course much higher and you can see how multi-dimensional they really are. Not only on the smallest level of additional handwriting on photographs, but in general. Things are added to the surface (blood, items, paper, mementos, drawings and paintings by others etc). But they also contain the extra dimension that is the most important of all: that of emotional tonality. Currently there is a great show at Guild Hall in East Hampton just outside New York City. Beard, himself being a Montauk institution, belongs in that Long Island/Hamptons context, as he does in many other. Strolling through the exhibition makes me amazed at his consistency in allowing chance and playfulness to play the dominant part, and at how many different environments he has actually passed through with that same approach. Yes, basically he takes...

My Merry Month of May Meanderings

May 31, 2016

I often live in/with the fantasy that I’ll have the time to write extensively about all my travels and experiences. So far, it remains mainly a fantasy. I’m happy that I always bring a camera because otherwise I would seriously doubt that all the things going on are actually real. This month of May was a supreme example of overheated activity. Thank you, camera. I started out by traveling with Linn Sparrenborg to beautiful Macedonia, to the Skopje International Film Festival. Being picked up in a black Mercedes and treated as a modern day Ingmar Bergman did not in any way decimate my already high sense of hubris. We were there to introduce and screen Silent Lips at the festival, and it was fantastic. Always a pleasure and a learning experience to watch the film on a real screen and with good sound. I think my attitude towards filmmaking is now not only “learning by doing” but also “learning in public”. After only a few days at home, it was London time: manifesting the...