Early career Born to Elin Agata (née Nordin) and Johan Viktor Albin Hessner on 13 August in
Östersund in central Sweden, Rune Hassner took up photography in 1942. He started professional work at the age of 19 in 1947 as a press photographer for
Uisntidningen and
Ostersunds-Postenin in Östersund. From 1947 to 1949 he worked assisting fashion and advertising photographer
Rolf Winquist, at the Ateljé Uggla (Uggla Studio) in
Stockholm.
Ethos Pictorialism as practiced in photography club competitions and exhibitions promoted a romantic national pride during the Second World War in neutral Sweden. Post-war, Hassner joined a counter-reaction among the country's young photographers who reacted against such painterly pretensions, practitioners of which they derisively nicknamed 'Rosenlunderiet' after an old peoples' home in Stockholm. Their show, organised by editor of FOTO magazine Lars Wickman, He also wrote for Swedish photographic periodicals on the new European photography, though his ideals were those of a more personally and poetically engaged photojournalist. In a 1951 issue of the magazine
Fotografisk årsbok he wrote:...values, lines and tones scattered on paper by optical and chemical means or processes; that's really that photography is [ but ] you don't have to use cheap tricks or things that hit and miss to make good pictures; despite all the aesthetic means of expression and subtleties, honour will always be given to the one who with the camera dares to go on the attack against violence and oppression, who dares to poke at habitual thinking and falsehood [ . . . ] The photograph that gives voice to human freedom, to the values of freedom, to humanity will always be valuable, even if it will not be accepted as great photography in aesthetic connoisseur circles. At 26, his
street photography, made with a
Rolleiflex, was published in
Camera magazine in 1954, with a commentary in which he discussed his love of making candid images in the city environment, his technique and motivation; For these photos I used a Rolleiflex, ultra-sensitive film, often ordinary developing paper to get details even in poor lighting; camera set at 3m, exposure usually ½s sec and aperture 5.6 or 8; I carried the camera around in my hand, always with one finger on the trigger, and often snapped immediately without consulting the viewfinder. As long as you carry the device inconspicuously in your hand, you can get very close to people without them reacting [ . . . ] Tired of working in the studio with the camera on wheels, with a lot of lamps, with large format negatives, retouching and smiling for the public, the opportunity and freedom to observe the real face of the people on the street drew me.By contrast he attacked the experimental photography in the exhibition
Subjektive Fotografie as constituting just another form of superficially picturesque aesthetic play. Though apparently retrograde, this stance was consistent with his conviction that photographs should communicate something consequential. to
Madagascar and then
Sudan and
Egypt to photograph for Strandberg's book
Jambo, later reissued by Houghton and Miffin and by international publishers, with his African pictures being included in other publications. One reviewer remarked that the "photography by Rune Hassner adds immensely to the reader's enjoyment of the book." In December 1955 he flew to New York and then, in February 1956 to
Hawaii to work there as a
stills photographer on a documentary film production, and in June traveled in Central America via Puerto Rico, and to India, USA, Australia and Asia. The co-operative, each paying a set fee and shared profits, office, studio, and darkroom facilities in Stockholm, but otherwise remained independent in style and approach. Hassner was also associated with the American agency
Black Star, founded in 1936. The group Tio fotografer was influential in Swedish photography and they regularly exhibited at significant venues for photography. Hassner's photographs of workers in China were included amongst work of the other members in a US Library of Congress traveling exhibition during 1971-2, and the whole group was presented at the
Hasselblad Centre in 1998. A retrospective of his photography toured major galleries in Sweden and Camden Art Centre in London over the years 1982-86. == Filmmaker ==