Olov Sune Jonsson (20 December 1930 – 30 January 2009) was a Swedish documentary photographer and writer, recipient of the

Hasselblad Award The Hasselblad Award (in full: Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography) is an award granted to "a photographer recognized for major achievements". History The award—and the Hasselblad Foundation—was set up from the estate ...

in 1993. Jonsson was born in Nyåker outside

Nordmaling Nordmaling is a locality and the seat of Nordmaling Municipality in Västerbotten County Västerbotten County ( sv, Västerbottens län) is a county or ''län'' in the north of Sweden. It shares the borders with the counties of Västernorrland, ...

in the province of

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the provi ...

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 ...

. After studying folklore and literature in

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 ...

and

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Jonsson returned in the early 1960s to northern Sweden. His debut book ''Byn med det blå huset'' (The village with the blue house) was published in 1959 and includes personal portrays of people in Djupsjönäs and his native village Nyåker. As in his second photobook, ''Timotejvägen'', the relationship between text and image play an important role. Between 1961 and 1995, Jonsson was hired as a photographer at the Museum of Västerbotten in Umeå, where he became dedicated to long-term cultural photographic works, mainly in the province of Västerbotten. Thematically, his photography was focused on the rural population, farmers, the man-made landscape and religious gatherings. Jonsson's artistic visual production was inspired by photographers such as

August Sander August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His first book ''Face of our Time'' (German: ''Antlitz der Zeit'') was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important Ger ...

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

, Wayne Miller and

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

, notably in the photo exhibition ''The Family of Man'' in 1955. Swedish writer

Ivar Lo-Johansson Ivar Lo-Johansson (23 February 1901 – 11 April 1990) was a Swedish writer of the proletarian school. His autobiographical 1979 memoir, ''Pubertet'' (''Puberty''), won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1979. Biography Born Ivar Johanss ...

and his social work ''Den sociala fotobildboken'' was an important role model. In addition to his photographic work, Jonsson was a skilled documentary film maker and he produced, in cooperation with the Museum of Västerbotten and

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 ...

, documentary films about small farms, mining and fishing in the sparsely populated northern Sweden.Fotografen Sune Jonsson död.
''Dagens Nyheter'', January 31, 2009.

Bibliography

* ''Byn med det blå huset'' (1959) * ''Timotejvägen'' (1961) * ''Hundhålet'' (1962) * ''Bilder av Nådens barn'' (1963) * ''Bilder från den stora flyttningen'' (1964) * ''Bilder av Kongo'' (1965) * ''Sammankomst i elden'' (1966) * ''Bilder från bondens år'' (1967) * ''Bilder från Bornholm'' (1967) * ''Prag augusti 1968'' (1968) * ''Brobyggarna'' (1969) * ''Minnesbok över den svenske bonden'' (1971) * ''Stationskarl Albin E. Anderssons minnen'' (1974) * ''Jordabok'' (1976) * ''Örtabok'' (1979) * ''Dagar vid havet'' (1981) * ''Blombok'' (1983) * ''Hemmavid'' (1986) * ''Tiden viskar – en småbrukarfamilj'' 1960–1990 (1991) * ''Sune Jonsson – Photographs by the recipient of the Hasselblad Prize'' (1993) * ''Jordgubbar med mjölk'' (1994) * ''Husen vid Himlastigen'' (1998) * ''Album – fotografier från fem decennier'' (2000) * ''Tiden blir ett förunderligt ting. Fotografier av människor och landskap'' (2007) * ''And Times becomes a Wondrous Thing'' (2007) * ''Livstycken'' (2014) * ''Life and work'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsson, Sune 1930 births 2009 deaths Swedish photographers Swedish male writers Documentary photographers