Olov Sune Jonsson (20 December 1930 – 30 January 2009) was a Swedish documentary photographer and writer, recipient of the Hasselblad Award in 1993. Jonsson was born in Nyåker outside Nordmaling in the province of

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), sometimes called West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in northern Sweden, located by the Gulf of Bothnia. It borders the provinces of Ångermanland, Lapland and Norrbotten. The region is famous for Väs ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. After studying folklore and literature in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital 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 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, 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 photography, portrait and Documentary photography, documentary photographer. His first book ''Face of our Time'' (German: ''Antlitz der Zeit'') was published in 1929. Sande ...

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

, Dorothea Lange, Wayne Miller and

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

, notably in the photo exhibition ''The Family of Man'' in 1955. Swedish writer Ivar Lo-Johansson 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 Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

, 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 People from Nordmaling Municipality