Rolf Blomberg (11 November 1912 – 8 December 1996) was a Swedish

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

writer,

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

and producer of

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

s.Rolf Blomberg Biography
by the Archivo Blomberg

Biography

Blomberg was born in

Stocksund Stocksund () is an upper class suburb in Metropolitan Stockholm, Sweden. Located immediately across the Edsviken and Stocksundet from Bergshamra, Stocksund is one of four parts of Danderyd Municipality north of Stockholm, which is the most af ...

, a district of the

Danderyd Municipality Danderyd Municipality (''Danderyds kommun''; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it ...

, in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

.Entry in the Database of the Svenska Filminstitutet
/ref> In 1934 he made his first travel to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and visited

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

and the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked as neutral war correspondent in Indonesia. He joined the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

and helped people who were trapped in Japanese

Internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

camps. After the war Blomberg returned to Ecuador where he visited the tribe of the

Huaorani The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador ( Napo, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate ...

. In six expeditions he failed with his efforts to find the lost

Treasure of the Llanganatis The Treasure of the Llanganates refers to a huge amount of gold, silver, platinum and electrum artifacts, as well as other treasures, supposedly hidden deep within the Llanganates mountain range of Ecuador by the Inca general Rumiñahui. Histo ...

. In 1950 he discovered ''

Bufo blombergi Blomberg's toad (''Rhaebo blombergi''), also known as the Colombian giant toad, is a very large species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is found in rainforests at altitudes between in western Colombia ( Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Cauca, and ...

'' which is considered as one of the largest toad in the world. In 1955 Blomberg became a member of

The Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...

in New York followed by memberships in the

Travellers Club The Travellers Club is a private gentlemen's club situated at 106 Pall Mall in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs and one of the most exclusive, having been established in 1819. It was described as "the ...

s of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, and

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

in Sweden. Blomberg was married three times. The first time in 1940 to the Swedish Karin Abdon. During the second world war, they travelled to Java, where on 19 May 1943 their son Rolf Staffan Blomberg was born. They separated after the war. Rolf Blomberg was twice married to Ecuadorian women. The first time to Emma Robinson who deceased in 1952 and the second time to artist

Araceli Gilbert Araceli Gilbert de Blomberg (1913 in Guayaquil, Ecuador – 1993 in Quito), was an Ecuadorian artist. Gilbert enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Santiago de Chile in 1936, studying under Jorge Caballero and Hernán Gazmurri, well-know ...

. In 1968 he moved to Ecuador, where he died in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

on 8 December 1996. Blomberg took about 35,000 photographes around the world. His

Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist- ...

camera was provided to him by

Victor Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad (8 March 1906 – 5 August 1978) was a Swedish inventor and photographer, known for inventing the Hasselblad 6x6 cm medium format camera. Life and work Hasselblad was born in Gothenburg. In 1940 Swedish Air Force officers re ...

himself. Blomberg produced 33 documentary features for the

Swedish Television Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. He made films in Ecuador (including Galápagos), Indonesia,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. Rolf Blomberg wrote about 20 books and hundreds of articles which were published in magazines such as

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

, Sea Frontiers, and the

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

. Many of his books were translated in several languages, including Spanish, English, Danish, Norwegian, Russian, Czech, Polish, and German. Three fourths of his publications dealt with the culture, nature and history of Ecuador. Many social scientists around the world were influenced by Blomberg's work. His reports on human rights violations of ethnic groups served as inspiration for the establishing of organizations such as

Cultural Survival Cultural Survival (founded 1972) is a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, which is dedicated to defending the human rights of indigenous peoples. History Cultural Survival was founded by anthropologist David Maybur ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

and the

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) is an independent and non-profit international human rights-based membership organization, whose central charter is to endorse and promote the collective rights of the world's indigenous ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Bibliography (selected)

*1939: ''Underliga människor och underliga djur: strövtåg på Galapagos och i Amazonas'' *1947: ''Sydvart'' *1949: ''Vildar: en berättelse om aucaindianerna i Ecuador.'' *1951: ''Såna djur finns'' *1952: ''Ecuador: Andean Mosaic'' *1956: ''Guld att hämta'' *1958: ''Xavante: från sköna Rio till de dödas flod'' *1964: ''Människor i djungeln'' *1966: ''Rio Amazonas'' *1968: ''América del Sur y Central'' with

Jean Dorst Jean Dorst (7 August 1924 – 8 August 2001) was a French ornithologist. Dorst was born at Mulhouse and studied biology and paleontology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris. In 1947 he joined the staff of the Muséum national d' ...

*2005: ''Blomberg Ecuador: Fotografías de Rolf Blomberg, 1934 a 1979''Google Books
/ref>

Filmography (selected)

*1954: Anaconda *1957: Jangada

References

External links

Rolf Blomberg blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blomberg, Rolf Swedish explorers Swedish film producers Swedish non-fiction writers 20th-century Swedish photographers 1912 births 1996 deaths Documentary film producers