Arild Kristo(1939-2010)

Arild Kristo, born Arild Kristoffersen in 1939, was a Norwegian photographer, graphic designer, actor and filmmaker. He was considered one of the most creative photographers and filmmakers in Norway during the sixties, but also one of the most rejected. The son of the cabaret singer and writer Einar Kristoffersen, enrolled at age 18 on a commercial trade ship, spent a few months in New York and was offered a job as a sailor by the photographer Finn Bergan in the remake of "Windjammer"(1958). Kristo got his photographic education at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, Ca., and received a letter of recommendation by the editor Richard Pollard at Life magazine. In Paris 1961 he took one of his most appreciated and highly priced photographs," The portrait painter on Montmartre", now in the collection of the Norwegian National museum. Back in Oslo, he formed the picture agency Manité together with the photographers Robert A. Robinson and Dan Young. In 1966 he created the short film "Undergrunnen / The Underground", a modernist view of the Oslo subway and the people using it. The film got big impact in the art film community and was invited to film festivals all over the world. Another short film "Kristoball" (1967) was directed before Arild Kristo made his feature film debut. "Eddie og Suzanne", a road movie with a love theme, took six years to complete but landed 1975 in a critic and audience success. Sixteen years later, Kristo made an animated short film called "Miraklete / The Miracle", which depicted the difficulty of funding his films.