Gösta “Gus” Peterson was a fashion photographer who was born in Orebro, Sweden in 1923.  Peterson majored in illustration and advertising graphics in Stockholm from 1941 through 1943.  Despite his artistic career being interrupted with a draft of military service in 1943, Peterson soon began his full-time job in 1944 at Gumaelius Advertising Bureau, the third-largest advertising agency in Stockholm.

Peterson arrived in New York City at 24 years old and, after a few short weeks of portfolio rounds, found work.  He got a job sketching fashion designs at Lord & Taylor and his parting gift from the agency in Stockholm was a Rolleiflex camera.

Peterson was self-taught, and he practiced his photography on the streets on New York. After a couple months of practicing between drawings, he had a box of bathroom-printed photographs ready to show.  And sure enough, after a short time, he was offered his first job at Mademoiselle.  It was in the 1950s that Peterson began taking on assignments for magazines and said yes to every opportunity he could get his hands on.  His work was featured in Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times, Life, Essence, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie-Claire, and many more publications from the 1950s to the 1980s.

His education in the graphic arts is apparent in his images with the incorporation of two-dimensional shapes and a focus on form.  As Gus related his life circa 1990 in Gösta Peterson: His Photography, As Is, “As Is is another abmiguity.  There is nothing spontaneous about the show.  There is nothing spontaneous about his (sic) work.  Within the time span of each ad, each shot is painstakingly erected.  According to controlled chance.  In a model’s gesture.  The position it is in.  What surrounds the model.  The negative space.  Are fastidiously manipulated.  Shot after shot…Always without fail.”

He often refers to his wife Patricia as the reason for his success as a fashion photographer as she was the president of Henri Bendel at the time and would become The New York Times’ fashion editor.  He was the first to photograph the British model Twiggy when she arrived in America.  Peterson also became the first photographer to use Naomi Sims as a model after several photographic agencies had rejected her.  The resulting image appeared on the Fall 1967 cover of The New York Times fashion supplement.

Peterson’s work has been exhibited in institutions and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholmp; ASF Gallery, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Detroit Institute of Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Worcester Art Museum; and Deborah Bell Photographs, Staley-Wise, and Turn Gallery in New York.