The Hasselblad Foundation stipend for nature photography has been awarded every two years since 2008 and, keeping in mind Victor Hasselblad’s interest in nature, aims to encourage the development of nature photography in the Nordic region and support photographic examinations of nature, landscapes and the environment. The stipend amount is SEK 100,000.
Application closed 2024
The Hasselblad Foundation must receive the application with samples of your work by April 1 at the latest.
Competence
The applicant must be a citizen of one of the Nordic countries or a citizen of another country but permanently resident in the Nordics. The scholarship is intended to be applied for by photographers for funding or contributions to funding an artistic or documentary project in nature photography, focusing on biodiversity and/or man’s impact on the climate.
Criteria and policy for assessment
The project must be limited and well defined with a time span of approximately 1 – 3 years from start to completion.
The assessment emphasises the project’s environmental focus, creativity, originality, and ability to influence man’s relationship with nature, landscape, and environment.
Scholarship amount
Recipients receive SEK 100,000 and are personally responsible for any tax consequences.
Application
The form can be filled out in Swedish or English and must be received by the Hasselblad Foundation no later than April 1, 2024.
Incomplete applications will not be taken up for processing, and supplementary documents after the application period can not been accepted.
As support for the application, samples of own work are attached (see below).
Application digitally
Sample of own work. Samples of your work can consist of publications and/or image material.
Publications (books, articles, catalogues). Note the publication’s title, author and publication date on page 3 of the application form. Attach a maximum of three different publications.
A maximum of 15 photographs are attached. Titles and dates for each picture are noted on page 3 of the application form.
All material in one pdf.
All application documents are retained by the foundation or destroyed according to the foundation’s choice when the selection process is completed. No material is returned.
Reporting
Written reports with visual material are submitted continuously during the project period by the agreement with the Hasselblad Foundation.
Payment of the grant
The foundation pays the scholarship amount in instalments and in connection with an approved report.
Selection
A nomination committee consisting of representatives from the foundation and external experts selects the winner.
Sara Linderoth
Trace, trace
Hasselblad Foundation stipend for nature photography 2020
Nature, landscape & environment
The Ash Project: Emanuel Cederqvist
The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Emanuel Cederqvist has been awarded the 2020 stipend for nature photography.
The Ash Project is a collaboration between photographers Emanuel Cederqvist and Sean Gardiner who, in a modest and aesthetically appealing visual dialogue, document ash tree dieback in Europe. The condition is currently present in the entire range of ash habitats, from northern Sweden to southern Tuscany, and is caused by an invasive fungus that threatens the very existence of the species.
© Emanuel Cederqvist
Gardiner and Cederqvist use a site-specific, comparative and archival methodology and the project visualises the disease’s spread: Cederqvist photographs trees with early symptoms on Öland, Sweden, while Gardiner photographs trees in Dorset, England, where the disease is not yet visible. Their focus on this critical time for the ash, which also has significant mythological importance, further reflects major environmental issues including the loss of biodiversity.
© Sean Gardiner
In a unique way, Cederqvist and Gardiner maintain and update the tradition of environmentally engaged photography in the footsteps of photographers such as Robert Adams.
The jury deciding this year’s stipend winner was:
Tyrone Martinsson: Professor of Film, Photo, Literary Composition at HDK-Valand – University of Gothenburg
Cecilia Sandblom: photographer and conservator, Hasselblad Foundation
Louise Wolthers: researcher and curator, Hasselblad Foundation
Hasselblad Foundation stipend for nature photography 2018
Nature, landscape & environment
Luleälven: Om dammen brister
Mia Rogersdotter Olofsson
The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Mia Rogersdotter Olofsson has been awarded the 2018 stipend for nature photography.
Mia Rogersdotter Olofsson’s project Luleälven: Om dammen brister (The Lule River: If the Dam Bursts) aims to be a portrait of the Lule River in the form of an investigation of a natural resource, a geographic area and a historical account of what the river valley looks like today. Mia Rogersdotter Olofsson wants to follow the river from its beginning in Sulitelma in Arjeplog to its catchment area in the Gulf of Bothnia and collect photographic material on foot and by boat. She will document the entire 461 km of the river, including Europe’s longest dry river bed of 17 km. Mia Rogersdotter Olofsson grew up in Luleå and already has a wealth of knowledge of the area. She is also a skilled photographer with a good eye for narratives in both natural and cultural landscapes.
Mia will do research and meet interest groups for the future survival of the river in Jokkmokk, and then proceed to photograph during the summer of 2018. The work will result in a book and/or an exhibition. The idea is to also present the project in different places along the river’s course.
“With this grant we want to support an interesting project and encourage a young photographer to continue her involvement in environmental issues and landscape photography”, says Louise Wolthers, head of research at the Hasselblad Foundation.
The jury deciding this year’s stipend winner was:
Tyrone Martinsson: Professor of Film, Photo, Literary Composition at HDK-Valand – University of Gothenburg
Cecilia Sandblom: photographer and conservator, Hasselblad Foundation
Louise Wolthers: researcher and curator, Hasselblad Foundation
David Arnar Runólfsson 2016 fellowship in nature photography
The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that David Arnar Runólfsson has been awarded the Foundation’s 2016 fellowship in nature photography.
The general purpose of the stipend, recalling Victor Hasselblad’s interest in the subject, is to encourage nature photography in the Nordic region.
From the series Impact, Skaftafellsjökull, 2015 © David Arnar Runólfsson
David Arnar Runólfsson applied with a project investigating the serious environmental impact of the Kárahnjúkar dam in Iceland. Through various methods of photographic documentation, archival research, and interviews with scientists and journalists, David Arnar Runólfsson will be conveying the irreversible effects on the environment and local ecosystems in a publication. Other dam projects around the world have similar effects, and as the artist states: “I believe it’s very important that we learn from this project and consider carefully before sacrificing more wilderness areas under water.”
David Arnar Runólfsson is currently finishing an MFA in photography at Valand Academy.
Members of the committee were Katarina Gårdfeldt, Dean at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability, GMV, at Chalmers and University of Gothenburg; Tyrone Martinsson, Senior Lecturer at Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg; Cecilia Sandblom, photographer at the Hasselblad Foundation, and Louise Wolthers, Research Manager at the Hasselblad Foundation.