From Photo To Painting

I've posted photos by photographer Pelle Piano here before, and shown you what a photoshop wizard he is. Now he has transformed a few of the photos he's taken of me into paintings. I think they're amazing, and it's almost scary what you can do with a computer these days... Oh well, here they are!

Thinking about selling these to the Louvre. Haha!

Sven Boqvist - Paris & Cote d'Azur 1957

About a year ago I did a blog post called The Penn Pals (you can read it here). This is a project by photographer and Photoshop wizard Pelle Piano, in which he created a fake book based on newly found photographs taken by the fake photographer Sven Boqvist in 1955. Several made up persons were featured in the book, and I got the pleasure of posing as the imaginary ballerina Tatiana Baronova - sister of Irina Baronova, who actually was a real ballerina back in the day.

Now Mr Piano has created a new book - Paris & Cote d´Azur - with more of Sven Boqvist´s photos. This time the story takes place at the Cannes Film Festival that took place in 1957. Here Sven meets both old and new friends who end up in front of his camera - one of them being Tatiana, who he's a bit infatuated by... This meant I got to portray this fictional ballerina again. The shoot took place in Pelle Piano's studio, against a blue screen. Before this Pelle had been to France and photographed the backgrounds he then inserted me in. And here is the result!

The Wall Dance.

At Versailles.

Sven and Tatiana at a museum.

Weird to see my back without a tattoo...

While in Paris Tatiana was also painted by a famous artist, as you can see in the pic above. For more info about The Penn Pals, and this new project Paris & Cote d´Azure, please go here!

Photo: Pelle Piano

The Penn Pals

Came home from my little burlesque trip to Rome at 3 am this morning. Of course I'll tell you all about that soon. But until I'm done writing those posts, here is something else...

Recently I got the honor of being put on the cover of a book - a book that doesn't really exist... This book, the story behind it, and the web site made to promote it, is a project created by the very inventive photographer, retoucher and web designer Pelle Piano, and is called The Penn Pals. The made up story behind this "book" is that the photos of the fictive photographer Sven Boqvist were thought to have been lost in a fire. Now, fifty years later, they have been found though. And this book is a compilation of these "lost" images, together with the stories about the persons portrayed - whom Sven Boqvist met during his travels in the 50s.

One of the characters Sven met and photographed in New York, in 1955, was the Russian born ballerina Tatiana Baronova, sister of Irina Barolova. Irina was a real ballet dancer, but in this project I got to portray her made up sister. And here are the photos Sven (or in real life - Pelle Piano) took of me/Tatiana...

All photos were taken in Mr Piano's home studio, against a blue screen, and then photoshopped into lovely surroundings by this talented man. I love shooting with him! Getting to see the final pictures, with the plain blue background magically replaced by amazing backgrounds is always so exciting!

Of course I'm not the only person portrayed as a fictional character in this "book". Go ahead and follow this link to The Penn Pals, and discover the rest. If I didn't know it was all a scam, I would believe this story was true. It's very well made!

All photos taken by Pelle Piano.

Shoot With Pelle Piano

About a week ago I did a photo shoot with Pelle Piano. He is both an amazing photographer and an amazing retoucher! I contacted him after seeing his previous work - and especially falling for his Old Hollywood style photos. We ended up having a fun and very productive day at his studio, and this post will show you the result. Everything was shot against a blue screen, so it was really fun to see the pictures after Pelle had worked his magic on them!

In 1956 I was on the cover of Vogue. The way I stay young is by drinking lots of red wine - antioxidants you know...

I actually started my first blog in 1941! I was living in NYC at the time...

...and just like the bloggers of today, I liked to take pictures of myself. I didn't have an iPhone though...

In Central Park!

Another self portrait. Queensboro Bridge in the background.

One more from Central Park. I love walking around there!

One of the best things with NYC is there's always cabs around!

I also had a bit of a career as an actress before I moved to Sweden! Sometimes acting as a femme fatale...

...and sometimes as...well...

For a short time I was married to a Count...Which actually makes me a Countess. And yes, I still hold that title!

And lastly, one from the good old Hollywood years!

As you can see Pelle Piano knows what he is doing! He has even taken the background photos - which he glued me into - himself. I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to work with him - and hope to be able to do it again in the future!

Pelle Piano's web site: http://www.pellepiano.com/

His Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/studiobild 

And this is where he posts his Old Hollywood photos: http://www.pellepiano.com/

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