To celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Hasselblad Award this exhibition presents works by all laureates to date – from the inaugural recipient, Lennart Nilsson, in 1980, to the 2020 awardee, Alfredo Jaar. It is accompanied by a jubilee book with a foreword by Sir Elton John. The exhibition is curated by Dragana Vujanović Östlind.

The works in the exhibition show a wide range in photography; from the scientific and political to the personal and intimate, from the street to the studio, from the cinematic, poetic and surrealist to the curious and engaged. The Hasselblad Award laureates are artists, innovators, activists, rebels and legends who have shaped the modern history of photography.

The majority of the recipients are active in the classical genres of the documentary, portraiture, still life, street and landscape photography. The exhibition highlights these dominant directions but also the breadth of styles and themes in the history of the award. Most of the works are sourced from the Hasselblad Foundation collection.

Granted for the first time in 1980, the Hasselblad Award has become the world’s most prestigious photography prize. It does not stipulate a certain style, content or technique – not even the use of a Hasselblad camera. Erna and Victor Hasselblad, the visionary couple behind the renowned camera, initiated the award with the aim of honouring major achievements in photography. In commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Hasselblad Award, we celebrate the influential work of all the winners, but also photography itself.

Image:

Malick Sidibé
Nuit de Noël, 1963 © Malick Sidibé

Hasselblad Award 1980–2020

2020 Alfredo Jaar
2019 Daido Moriyama
2018 Oscar Muñoz
2017 Rineke Dijkstra
2016 Stan Douglas
2015 Wolfgang Tillmans
2014 Ishiuchi Miyako
2013 Joan Fontcuberta
2012 Paul Graham
2011 Walid Raad
2010 Sophie Calle
2009 Robert Adams
2008 Graciela Iturbide
2007 Nan Goldin
2006 David Goldblatt
2005 Lee Friedlander
2004 Bernd & Hilla Becher
2003 Malick Sidibé
2002 Jeff Wall
2001 Hiroshi Sugimoto
2000 Boris Mikhailov
1999 Cindy Sherman
1998 William Eggleston
1997 Christer Strömholm
1996 Robert Frank
1995 Robert Häusser
1994 Susan Meiselas
1993 Sune Jonsson
1992 Josef Koudelka
1991 Richard Avedon
1990 William Klein
1989 Sebastião Salgado
1988 Edouard Boubat
1987 Hiroshi Hamaya
1986 Ernst Haas
1985 Irving Penn
1984 Manuel Alvarez Bravo
1983 No prize awarded
1982 Henri Cartier-Bresson
1981 Ansel Adams
1980 Lennart Nilsson