Masked: Exploring reality at Nicholas Anthony’s Mayfair studio

On 25th June, the team at Nicholas Anthony were delighted to host an evening of art and design at our studio on Wigmore Street, in partnership with Gaggenau, where we celebrated the work of award-winning photographic artist and film director, Erica Bergsmeds.

An invitation-only event marking the launch of an exhibition that will run throughout the summer until the end of September, the evening was filled with inspiration and conversation. Renowned British DJ, Rubber Ron, set the musical tone for the evening. Known for his eclectic style, he’s a regular feature at exclusive events, performing for celebrities including Prince, Madonna and The Rolling Stones, and for spinning the decks at the wedding of Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco.

The experience was accompanied by curated canapés from eco-chef, Justin Horne, and regenerative, ethical fine dining experts Sativa Food Studio. Meanwhile, aperitifs from Swedish artisans, Pomelle, brought a refreshing taste of summer with flavours of fresh elderflower and grapefruit, and Three Spirit Drinks provided non-alcoholic options.

The photographic exhibition invites guests into an immersive dialogue between art, design, and ambience, featuring thought-provoking portraits of figures concealed behind oversized teddy bear heads. The works explore an era where perfection is edited, curated, and filtered into existence, looking through the lens to ask a simple but unsettling question: what remains when the mask slips?

Questioning what’s real

At first glance, the imagery presented by Bergsmeds is playful and disarming. Look closer, however, and her work reveals a more complex exploration of identity, self-presentation and vulnerability in a world increasingly shaped by social media and technology.

Bergsmeds explains: “I wanted to explore the impact of social media filters; how we’re all hiding behind a mask, and how we’re all scared to be ourselves. The more technology we have available to alter ourselves in a non-real world, the more insecure and boxed in it seems we become.”

The exhibition emerged from her desire to examine the impact of curated online identities and the growing distance between how people present themselves and who they really are. She asks: “What happens if we lose that mask? Who are we then?”

Behind the filter

The theme extends beyond photography into Bergsmeds’ next film project, Unfiltered, written with Italian-American actress, director, screenwriter and producer Livia De Paolis. The film explores similar territory, following a woman who becomes so attached to a filtered version of herself that she begins to believe it is her true identity.

For Bergsmeds, the teddy bear in her photographs became the visual metaphor for this tension between appearance and reality. “I felt as though we all want to present as though we are tough and strong and cool, but really we’re just little teddy bears,” she says; “we’re children inside.”

That contrast between strength and vulnerability runs throughout the exhibition. The teddy bear – soft, nostalgic and universally familiar – becomes both shield and disguise, concealing the individual while simultaneously revealing something deeply human beneath the surface.

Capturing the moment

Produced with support from Leica UK and photographed entirely using the Leica Q3 43, the series also reflects Bergsmeds’ longstanding fascination with cinematic image-making. She describes the camera as one of the finest she has worked with, praising its lens and the sharpness that helped realise the project’s visual language.

“I was really excited to use this camera for the cinematic quality and sharpness of the lens,” she says, also noting that it aligned with the fluidity of her particular brand of photography – one which sets up a scenario and then lets the process unfold, adding a dynamism to her images that gives them the kind of energy that almost seems to jump off the print itself.

It’s a methodology that returning visitors can experience even further. While Masked introduces a more direct photographic approach, visitors also encounter additional works drawn from Bergsmeds’ wider practice. These retrospective pieces include her distinctive double-exposure images, a technique she has explored for many years. Unlike digital composites assembled in post-production, Bergsmeds creates her layered works in-camera, capturing multiple exposures in the moment. “I’ve always loved double exposure,” she says; “but this time I wanted to explore doing something more straight.”

One of her double exposure works, Split Reality, combines black and white as well as colour imagery to create dreamlike, ethereal compositions that question perceptions of reality. Another featured image, Eden, emerged spontaneously when Bergsmeds photographed white flowers before immediately capturing a friend sitting beside a pool, resulting in a painterly image formed entirely within the camera. The notion of Split Reality connects directly with the themes explored in Masked. Bergsmeds says: “All of them challenge how we live our lives and how we see reality.”

A material world

Bergsmeds’ interest in perception extends beyond image-making to the physical presentation of her work itself as well. Most pieces are printed on brushed aluminium, a medium Bergsmeds has favoured since 2017. The material’s textured surface responds dramatically to changing light conditions, creating reflections and movement as viewers walk around each piece. “It becomes very interactive,” she says. “You can see texture, light and reflections in the fibre of the metal.” The industrial quality of aluminium also aligns with her artistic sensibility: “I like that rawness,” she says.

Light, movement and intuition have long been central to Bergsmeds’ creative process, and that’s part of what makes her images so alive. Whether working in photography or film, she describes herself as a storyteller driven by instinct rather than rigid control. “I do everything in the moment,” she says. “I might know what I want to do, but I don’t control the outcome.”

That openness perhaps explains the emotional resonance that characterises much of her work. From her debut solo exhibition Emotion in Motion to her latest explorations of digital identity, Bergsmeds consistently returns to questions of perception, feeling and human connection. Having lived in Sweden, Vienna, New York and London, she acknowledges that cities have also shaped her visual language, and again, the energy of a metropolis shines through: “I think you can see that emotional connection to the big city,” she says.

Connection and creativity

The Masked exhibition features a cast made up largely of people from Bergsmeds’ own creative circle, including models Kylie Olsson, Julia Hurley and Molly Wagner, alongside entrepreneur Andrew Masanto, who also supported the project. The personal connection she has with her subject comes across in the playfulness and ease with which the images appear to come to life.

“I like working with personal close friends because I feel I can connect with them,” she explains. “I’ve been a fashion photographer for 25 years, so working with models and people from that world made sense.”

While women frequently appear at the centre of her photographs and films, Bergsmeds says this emerges naturally from her interests rather than being fuelled by a deliberate agenda. Nevertheless, she is passionate about supporting female empowerment within the creative industries. Her work, however, is intended to speak to everyone.

Being seen

Ultimately, Masked: A Story of Hidden Faces invites viewers to look beyond surfaces and question the identities we construct for ourselves. In a culture increasingly mediated by screens, filters and carefully curated personas, Bergsmeds offers a timely reminder of the vulnerable human being hidden beneath. Perhaps that is the exhibition’s most powerful message: behind every mask, no matter how convincing, there remains a person exploring ways to be seen by others and themselves.