Hasse Persson, Biography

Hasse Persson, born in 1942 in Borås, is represented in a number of Swedish museums, including the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

He has had a long career as a photojournalist in the US where he spent nearly a quarter of a century with New York as his base and the entire world as his field. He has published five books on the United States and his photographs have been published in magazines such as The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and Life.

In 2011 Hasse Persson received the HM King Carl XVI Gustaf medal of the 8th size in blue ribbon “for artistic work as a photographer.”

Today Hasse Persson is the artistic director of the Konsthallen Strandverket in Marstrand, a job he was personally recruited to by the owner, Peter Hjörne, in 2012. Prior to this Hasse was the director of  Borås Art Museum, where he during his six years reinforced the museum’s position as an arts institution of national importance. Apart from acclaimed exhibitions with names such as Hilma af Klint, Tony Cragg, Jim Dine, Carl-Fredrik Reuterswärd and Nathalia Edenmont, Hasse in 2008 inititated Borås International Sculpture Festival. The project was an instant success, not least because of the nine-meter tall Pinocchio sculpture “Walking to Boras” by Jim Dine, which was purchased and permanently installed in the city.

Persson has also been artistic director of the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg for six years and has also worked as an advisor to the Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Among his most acclaimed exhibitions include those of the Hasselblad Prize winners Lennart Nilsson, Sune Jonsson and Christer Strömholm and exhibitions with other Swedish greats like Lennart Olson, Lars Thunberg Birch, Denise Grunstein, Maria Miesenberger, JH Engstrom and picture group Ten Photographers. A number of exhibitions with international names such as Anton Corbijn, Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Esko Männikkö, Tracey Moffat, Helmut Newton, Walker Evans and Deborah Turbeville are also on the Hasse Persson artistic track record.