Victor Hasselblad

Book excerpt: Victor Hasselblad's life became dramatic and successful. As a youth he sought refuge in nature and photography and with time he became a world traveller and a successful industrialist. Victor Hasselblad : The Man Behind the Camera written by Sören Gunnarson is the result of many years of research and is based on extensive interviews and voluminous correspondence. Apart from relating the story of the man behind the camera, the book also contains a record of Hasselblad camera models and describes the events that took place when the company changed from analogue to digital photography. The Hasselblad camera made its huge breakthrough when the American astronauts began to use it in space. The photographs of the first men on the Moon are some of the most published images in the world. The camera also figured largely for more earthbound photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, working in the fields of advertising, fashion, photojournalism, portraiture, nature, science and medicine. The idea for his camera came to Victor Hasselblad (1906-78) in his youth when he travelled around the Swedish countryside to photograph birds. Never really satisfied with his results, he began to dream about a better camera.