Alinder, John
(1858–1957)
A serious amateur who devoted himself to photography, Alinder grew up on a farm in Altuna parish in eastern Västmanland County and lived there all his life. He taught himself photography when it required fragile glass plates, a heavy camera, long exposures, and a complex process of developing the negatives and printing them in the sunlight. His chosen subjects were his own family, their relatives, neighbors and friends in the village, the parish, and nearby parishes, who allowed him to record their daily activities as well as take portraits that reveal their individual personalities. These images, which were intended only for the people they depicted and may well not have cost them anything, were co-created by the photographer and his subjects. Alinder was well known by people in the area during his lifetime. But his 8,000 glass plate negatives had disappeared until the 1980s, when Iréne A. Flygare, an ethnographer and curator at Upplandsmuseet, discovered them in the library basement. The county museum exhibited 150 of his photos in 2021–22, and a book, John Alinder: Portraits, 1900–32 (Devi Lewis Publishing, in collaboration with Landskrona Foto and Upplandsmuseet), appeared at the same time.
Fredrikson, Axel
(1893–1971)
A self-taught photographer whose parents were farm laborers at Fogelstad manor in Julita parish, Södermanland, Fredrikson documented life and work on the estate during the 1920s and 1930s. Julita had a established a mechanized dairy in 1884 and trained young women to become skilled dairymaids. The landowner’s unmarried daughter, Emma Tamm, learned to manage the estate and advocated women’s rights to vote, hold elective office, and enter professions. In the 1920s, she expanded the program to include training women as cowshed managers and laboratory technicians in dairies. Today the estate, which belongs to Nordiska museet, tells the story of agriculture in this fertile and prosperous region. In 2020, an exhibit curated by Åsa Elzén featured 10 of Axel Fredrikson’s portraits of the women teachers and students at Julita: see https://www.asaelzen.com/home/Notes_on_a_Fallow_The_Other_School.html
Andersson, Karl Fredik
(1865–1949)
Karl F. Andersson came from a family of photographers in Skultorp parish near Skövde, Skaraborg (now Västergötland). His prints are in an album called “Documents in Black and White,” which includes portraits of his relatives, friends, and neighbors and scenes of rural life, particularly of old-fashioned houses and the old people who lived there and continued to cultivate the land.
Bengtsson, Joel
(1884–1971)
Bengtsson had his own studio and photographed furniture produced by a local manufacturers for their advertising catalogues, but a few images of people working on farms around Tibro in Skaraborg (now Västergötland) appear among the thousands of his formal portraits in Västergötlands museum.
Häckner, Ida Karolina
(1862–1925)
Häckner was among Sweden’s first female professional photographers, and from 1898 to 1908 she was based in Malung in Upper Dalarna. One of seven daughters of Jonas Andersson, an estate owner who was a liberal member of parliament and supported equal rights for women, Ida and all her sisters remained single and pursued professional careers. She took the surname Häckner from the name of the place she spent her childhood. (At that time, many Swedes were choosing place names rather than patronymics like Andersson because there were so many people with common surnames that they were often confused with others who were not relatives.) Häckner had the only studio in Malung and also photographed people in their own settings at home, on farms, and in the landscape. She retired in 1909 because she was losing her eyesight. See Ingrid Hartman Söderberg, “Vidunder till qvinnor”: Sju systrar som pionjärer i yrkesliv och offentlighet 1860–1935 (PhD diss., Örebro University, 2003). Her photographic archive is in Nordiska museet.
See also https://www.rotter.se/faktabanken/portrattfynd/dalarna/malung/ida-haeckner/243131
Studio portrait of two young men standing on either side of two young women. The man on the left wears a ceremonial military uniform with a high tasseled hat and leans on a long sword; the man on the right wears a dark, double-breasted suit with a white, high-collared shirt and a loosely tied ascot. The two young women are dressed identically, in long dark skirts covered by white aprons, white blouses with puffy sleeves covered by dark vests that lace in the front, and white caps. None of these items has any trace of “folk” embroidery or hand weaving. It is not clear whether they are two couples or four siblings, although those on the left appear younger than those on the right. The photo is printed on a card with “ Ida Häckner, Malung” below. Associated information says that Häckner purchased the studio in Malung from Fredrique Holmsedt (1865-1922).
Hakelier, Bernhard
A Russian citizen born in Latvia, Hakelier moved to Sweden to join his older brother’s photography business. From the 1880s until his death in 1910, he took studio portraits of military officers and the business elite in and around Örebro, a burgeoning industrial city, and his views of the mines, factories, and estates they owned are almost the only places in which the working classes appear. Biographical information about Bernhard Hakelier was compiled by the staff of the Örebro county museum, which holds his photographic archive.
Heurlin, Gustav
(1862–1939)
After studying photography in Germany, Heurlin took photographs throughout Sweden, from the southern coast to the Sami region in the north, as well as in Norway and Latvia. Many of his photographs feature farming families and coastal fishermen, as well as the working and wandering poor. He also spent a decade in Chicago, which had a large Swedish community, where he exhibited and sold his photographs at the Camera Club. Most of his photographs are in Västergötlands museum.
Johansson, Gustav
(1884–1937)
Karlsson, Anders C
(1893–1967)
A freelance professional, Karlsson became so famous for the diversity of people and places he photographed that he was known as “the whole world’s Karlsson.” He began bicycling around rural west-central Sweden with his camera around 1923 and continued through the 1930s. His favorite format was a two-level image with a family posed outside their dwelling above and a wide-angle view of their farm below. His photographic archive belongs to Skövde Stadsmuseet and is stored in Västergötlands museum in Skara. For his biography, see Lars Hasselberg, “Anders Cornelius Karlsson, Götlunda,” Landsbygden genom Linsen: Bygdefotografer i Västergötland, Västergötlands Fornminnesförenings Tidskrift (1989): 139–59.
Lundh, Gunnar
(1898–1960)
The son of a studio photographer, Lundh became a freelance professional after the First World War, selling photographs to periodicals and making in-depth studies of places, occupations, and everyday activities. Lundh also photographed female models showing off the latest fashions, which he sold to magazines. These women are anonymous, and Lundh’s captions describe them in terms of their hair color and the style and colors of their clothing. In some cases, he photographed the same model wearing the same outfit looking in several different directions, indicating that he told her to look at the camera, to look down or to her left or right, or to gaze into the distance. In the 1930s, Lundh became well known for his portraits of statare. See Ivar Lo-Johansson (text) and Gunnar Lundh (photographs), Statarna i Bild (Stockholm: KFs Bokförlag, 1948). Lo-Johansson was among a group of socialist writers who had grown up in rural poverty and whose realistic autobiographical novels promoted reform. Lundh’s photographic archive is in Nordiska museet in Stockholm. For his biography, see Pär Rittsel, “Gunnar Lundh,” https://sites.google.com/site/prittsel/gunnarlundh.
Rud, Erik H.
(1882–1971)
Rud had a farm in Fredsberg parish, Skaraborg (now Västergötland), as well as a lumber business, but he devoted much of his time to taking photographs in the surrounding countryside. His collection of more than 6,000 images in Västergötlands Museum includes many views of farms, families, and people doing farm work. He took a special interest in horse-drawn farm machinery and the construction of modern cowsheds, but also photographed elderly smallholders who used older methods of cultivation.
Wennerholm, Gustaf [also spelled Gustav Vennerholm]
(1865–1946)
According to his gravestone, Gustaf was employed as a teacher in the local folk high school. His 1,200 photographs, most of which were taken in the 1920s and 1930s, include portraits of his relatives and friends on special occasions and scenes in and around Timmersdala, 20 km north of Skövde in Skaraborg (now Västergötland). They are part of the Anders and Gustaf Wennerholm collection, which was donated to Västergötlands museum by a descendant in 1993.
Victorin, Carl
(1842–1914)
A photographer and land agent in Västergötland, Victorin took thousands of photos in his home district, including formal portraits and landscapes, which are in Västergötlands museum.