ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. “Photographie 1984-1986".

Published by Germano Celant.
Printed by Schirmer/Mosel 1987, Italy.

Dimensions 23x28 cm.

Provenance: The estate of photographer Nils-Erik Wikebäck (1934—2025)

At the bottom of a dark storeroom was recovered a long-hidden treasure -- hundreds of vintage photographs, taken and evoked by the artist himself. Images from the late 1960s onwards, which have lain in silence for over half a century, testify to an artistry that operated in the hidden but with a definite place in the photographic movement of its time.

Born in Södra Viker and raised in Lennartsfors, Nils-Erik Wikebäck developed his visual vision early on and worked as an autodidact until a personal and technically accomplished expression. His breakthrough came in 1966 when he was admitted to the influential CAMUS Image Group, whose international success also marked his own trajectory.
Over the years, his photography attracted attention in some thirty countries, with several prestigious awards and exhibitions in Europe, the United States and Japan.

This auction will feature a selection of his darkroom-evoked vintage photographs, mainly from the latter part of the 1960s, as well as his personal collection of photography books — with names such as Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe and Richard Avedon.
Nils-Erik Wikebäck stands out as a photographer's photographer — an uncompromising perfectionist, where precision and integrity were guiding in every image.