Jansson grew up in Stockholm, where he was born. In the 1970s and early 80s, Jansson photographed popular bands coming to Stockholm behind the stage and in VIP areas, such as Blondie, Roxy Music, Iggy, Bowie and the Clash, as well as musicians Chet Baker and Miles Davis. He then took on an assistant role with Swedish photographer Carl-Johan Rönn, where he received an education in the works of Stieglitz, Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Kerstész and Lartigue. Five years thereafter, he moved to New York to assist Richard Avedon during the time Avedon was working on In the American West.
Career
In 1987 Jansson returned to Stockholm and set up his own studio and darkroom, which maintains his archive today. By the early 90s, Jansson had moved to Paris and established his career as an international fashion photographer working for magazines such as French Glamour, British Vogue, Italian Vogue, Numero, Arena Hommes Plus and Stockholm New, a magazine Jansson helped pioneer. It was during those years that he started a long-term collaboration with stylist Karl Templer, who, in a 2008 interview for French GQ, stated that Jansson's talent was "limitless". Jansson's body of work encompasses both analog film photography, as well as digital. Jansson established himself with an international roster of international brands such as Donna Karan, Tiffany & Co, Calvin Klein, Gap, Guerlain, Lancôme, Zegna, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Armani, Dior, Tod's, and Estée Lauder. He is currently commissioned for publications including Vogue, Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, W Magazine, Vogue Hommes International, i-D, Love, Pop, Another Magazine and V Magazine. These assignments include high-profile celebrity features and include some of the most iconic talents of our time such as Jodie Foster, Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Sofia Coppola, Helen Mirren, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Marc Jacobs. Writer Claes Britton said that the threads that tie Jansson's work together are the women he portrays, paradoxically strong and vulnerable, such as Veruschka, Tatjana Patitz, Isabella Rossellini, Carolyn Murphy, Giselle Bundchen Raquel Zimmerman and more recently, Kendall Jenner. In Interview Magazine, model Daria Werbowy succinctly states: “you like women” and the accompanying images speak for themselves as they carry us to Jansson's native Sweden and his beloved archipelago where he is able to connect with his roots and finds expression in the untouched landscapes and waterways that have been the subject of many films.
Projects
Jansson's self-titled book, Mikael Jansson, a retrospective of his earlier works, was published by Beaufort Press in 2000. Writer and journalist Claes Britton wrote in the foreword: “His visual expression is blessed with a rare virtue in modern photography: timelessness.” His interest in racing lead him to follow the Formula 1 circuit around the world, from 2003-2006 and resulted in a book titled , published by Steidl in 2007 with text by fashion historian Ulrich Lehmann. An exhibition was held for the book's launch at Kulturhuset, in Stockholm.
