Hassner, Rune (1928-2002), Swedish photographer, film-maker, and photohistorian. After an apprenticeship with Rolf Winquist, he went freelance in 1949, basing himself in Paris until 1957. Participating in the path-breaking exhibition Unga Fotografer in 1949, and in 1958 co-founder of the Tio Fotografer cooperative, he became a spokesman for the first post-war generation of Swedish photographers. His Paris years were devoted to fashion, reportage for Swedish periodicals, and articles on the French photo scene. But his speciality became politically and socially conscious photojournalism, combined with travels in India, Mexico, China, and West Africa. The New China (1957) was a milestone, Hassner being both author and photographer. From the early 1960s he turned increasingly to film. Pictures for Millions, his book on the history of photography seen through the prism of the printed and mass-reproduced image, was first a TV series. In 1982-95 he headed the first university-level photography programme at Göteborg University. In 1988 he also became director of the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg.
— Jan-Erik Lundström
