Gustavsson grew up in a suburb north west of Stockholm. Between 1964 and 1967 he studied photography at the Fotoskolan in Stockholm, where the photographer
Christer Strömholm was head, at the same time as
Anders Petersen. After graduation in 1967, he and Petersen co-founded the
Saftra photo agency (Saftra Reportage Fotografi). The Swedish photo magazine Foto published Gustavsson's work in the 1960s. Together with Anders Petersen, Gustavsson portrayed the Stockholm slums in an exhibition at the Stockholm City Museum in 1969. After not working in photography for most of the 1970s, a feature in ETC magazine in 1983 revived Gustavsson's career and he went on to complete assignments in Belfast, Chicago, Reykjavik and New York for ETC. In 1984 he was awarded FOTO magazine's Photographer's Price. The critic
Gerry Badger has said of Gustavsson's work that "it certainly is very post-war, deeply existential and luminously poetic. And, like most good photography, it is a beguiling exploration of the human condition and our relationship with the world." ==Exhibitions==