Gösta Peterson

Gösta "Gus" Peterson (né Gösta Reinhold Pettersson, April 25, 1923 – July 28, 2017) was a Swedish-American photographer whose fashion photographs were widely published in the editorial pages of magazines including Elle, Esquire, Essence Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Marie Claire, and The New York Times, from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. In the 1960s, Bea Feitler, the former Art Director for Harper’s Bazaar, Ms., and Rolling Stone said, "The most interesting fashion pages now – the ones that say the most about our times – are Gösta Peterson’s for Mademoiselle." The photographer Duane Michals called him, "underrated."

Early life Peterson was born in Örebro, Sweden on April 25, 1923. He moved to Stockholm where he studied illustration and advertising graphics at the Anders Beckman Skola. He found himself becoming restless "hanging over a drafting table" all day. He married her on July 10, 1954. Peterson credits her with helping him jumpstart his career as a photographer. He found himself becoming restless "hanging over a drafting table" all day.

In summer 1967, a fledgling African-American model named Naomi Sims telephoned Peterson and made an appointment to visit his studio. She had never been photographed for publication and had previously done only a single test shoot with John Vidol.

• Arthur Elgort (four months, around 1966): Peterson's use of natural light in turn influenced Elgort's work. Elgort told the art historian Martin Harrison, "He was great; improvisational, off-the-cuff."

• Linda Rodin (three years in the 1970s): Fashion and beauty entrepreneur and model. "He seemed to shoot everything I loved in all of the magazines," she explained. "So I got his address from the phonebook and went up there and sat on his stoop for like 2 hours."

• Roberto Sandoval

• Deborah Tuberville

• Stan Wan

Peterson retired in 1986.

Exhibitions and collections • April 13-June 29, 2023: Gösta Peterson Photographs 1960s-1970s, Deborah Bell Photographs, New York City (solo exhibition)

• October 8, 2022 – February 12, 2023: A Personal View of High Fashion & Street Style, Photographs from the Nicola Erni Collection 1930s to Now, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida (group exhibition)

• In January 2015: From The Archive, Turn Gallery, New York City (solo exhibition)

• May 6-August 9, 2009: The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion, The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (group exhibition)

• March–April 2008: Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts (group exhibition)

• October 18-November 30, 1986: Dagsländor, Fotografiska Museet i Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (solo exhibition)

Peterson's photographs are held in museum collections worldwide, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; and private collections such as The James Moores Collection, Liverpool, England (formerly Pulsynetic, London).

Awards Gösta Peterson is the recipient of multiple awards, including:

• 1963: 42nd Annual National Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design of the New York Art Directors Club

• 1979: The Art Directors Club 58th Annual Exhibition Merit Awards for his photographs for Ralph Lauren and Chloe

• 1980: The Art Directors Club 58th Annual Exhibition Merit Awards for his photographs for "Fox"

• 1981: Award of Excellence CA-81, 22nd Annual Exhibition Sponsored by Communication Arts Magazine -- Consumer Magazine Ad Campaign (Ruth Scharf, client / DBA Group Two, agency)

• 1982: The Certificate of Excellence for the exhibition Communication Graphics 1982 Awarded by the American Institute of Graphic Arts

• 1983: Award of Excellence CA-83, 24th Annual Exhibition Sponsored by Communication Arts Magazine -- Consumer Magazine Ad Campaign (AT&T Communications, client / NW Ayer Inc., agency)

Personal life Gösta and Patricia Peterson have a daughter Annika Peterson, the owner of Turn Gallery and an actor and a son Jan Krister Peterson, a director and cinematographer who is married to the photographer Enid Crow.

Peterson was a fan of jazz, and he played the trombone as a hobby. He was friends with jazz composer/musician Charles Mingus and shot the cover of the album Mingus at Carnegie Hall. He also photographed musicians Yo Yo Ma, Zoot Sims, and Duke Ellington.