My so-called career started in the mid-70s in the punk era. I was 17 when punk arrived and its spirit influenced me profoundly. Anyone could play music or be a photographer – anybody could be anything. One of my first pictures was of Joe Strummer. I tagged along with a journalist friend and knocked on his motel door. A week later I was hanging out with the Jam in Malmö. I worked for many years as a rock photographer, and then as a photojournalist in Nicaragua and South Africa, but today I mostly work with classical musicians. My photographs try to bring that rock’n’roll energy into classical music and opera.
This photo was taken on a sunny day in Stockholm at the Drottningholm Palace theatre, part of one of the Swedish king and queen’s residences. It’s a fantastic 18th-century building, a Unesco heritage site which hosts an opera festival each summer.
I work there often so I was given exclusive access to use the backstage areas. I love this place. I even made a book about it many years ago, and I know every corner of the theatre.
I was shooting the cover for Martin Fröst’s Mozart Clarinet Concerto for BIS Records, and we chose the location because we wanted the ambience of something old and beautiful. The theatre dates from the time that Mozart was alive. Fröst is arguably the most famous clarinet player in the world and we’re good friends. He loves to be photographed, which is convenient for me. You could call him vain but, like the Beatles, he knows the importance of a strong image.
We were shooting backstage but Martin was really stiff. He might like to be photographed but he’s overly conscious of how he will come out in the pictures, so it’s hard to get him off balance. When I shoot dancers I always want to catch them off balance to capture the movement. Similarly, portraits need to be captured in this in-between.
I had heard that fashion photographers get models to make lots of faces and move around to get relaxed, so I told Martin to start jumping about. We’d been taking photos in the shadows because the sunlight coming through the window was really harsh. I started photographing him as he was playing around making silly faces, and snapped this as he stepped into the sunlight.
The second I took it I was thinking, “I hope this comes out well.” I looked in the camera afterwards and it seemed really freaky. My favourite part of the picture is his eye: a little black dot. It has always reminded me of Edvard Munch’s Scream. It also reminds me of my most famous photograph, Iggy Pop giving the middle finger. The composition is similar but instead of the middle finger there’s a clarinet.
This crazy picture didn’t make the album cover. BIS are conservative, and it was felt that the audience for classical music are as well. But it was the biggest picture of my exhibition Mats Bäcker Classics, where it was blown up to a 2×2 metre print. Martin was at the opening at the Concert Hall in Stockholm and thought it was great fun, he really likes it. There’s a good photo of me and Martin standing in front of it, screaming back at the photo.
I only found classical music later in my life. The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm put an ad in the paper saying they wanted a new photographer. My friends urged me to apply but I thought it sounded boring. I remember thinking, “Why would I work at an opera house?” But I did apply, I got the job, and the first opera I shot was Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. I had no idea what it was about but I was in tears while shooting because I was so touched by the music and the story. It was mind-blowing. I remember thinking that I’d photographed hundreds of rock concerts and never been touched by anything like that.
Opera is very photogenic, the body language and stage design are grand and the light is fantastic – it’s served on a plate for me to photograph. I stayed for 10 years at the opera and then went freelance, shooting stages all over Scandinavia. Since that day, dance, opera and classical music have been my life.
See more photographs at matsbacker.se and @matsbacker on Instagram
Mats Bäcker’s CV
Born: Hagfors, Sweden 1958
Trained: MA in Photography at Konstfack, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm.
Influences: “Irving Penn, Anton Corbijn, Pennie Smith”
High point: “Quitting my job at the opera and starting to work as a freelancer again.”
Low point: “Getting depressed during my last few years at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. I got bored shooting the same stage every night”
Top tip: “Look. Practise. Specialise. Immerse yourself in what you are interested in, then you will take good photos.”