1936 to 1944 in Stockholm, he discovered photo-
graphy and became fascinated with its possibilities.
He spent a great deal of time taking pictures and
developing prints in the darkroom. After high
school, Hammarskio ̈ld spent six months as an
assistant to Sven Thermænius, a well-known cine-
matographer. In 1947, Hammarskio ̈ld bought his
first camera, a Rolleiflex, and, in 1948 became an
apprentice photographer at portrait Studio Uggla,
where he studied under Rolf Winquist, an out-
standing Swedish portraitist of the time.
Hammarskio ̈ld’s photographic career really
began in Stockholm in 1949, at an exhibition titled
Unga fotografer(Young Photographers), a show
organized by a group of contemporary photogra-
phers. The photographers who made up this group
wished to separate themselves from both the subject
matter and style of the photographic establishment
made up of the generation of pre-war photogra-
phers. These photographers celebrated what the
younger generation saw as an outdated, romanti-
cized view of the Swedish national identity.
One of Hammarskio ̈ld’s images from this time,
Barcelona 1949, shows his digression from the por-
traiture style he had adapted from Winquist, the
movement in this image differing considerably from
the style he had been learning as an apprentice. It
also displays the sharp contrast of tones with deep
blacks and bright whites, a significant departure from
the modulated grays prevalent in Swedish photogra-
phy at the time. InFrost, 1949, Hammarskio ̈ld also
diverges from convention in focusing on one detail of
nature, rather than shooting an over-all scene. This
technique becomes a characteristic of his photogra-
phy over the years, and this image of grains of grass
with a leaf in the upper left-hand corner is the first of
his many photographs of nature, and more specifi-
cally of the magical beauty of frost.
In 1950, Hammarskio ̈ld focused on architecture
and fashion and worked for a year at Sten Didrik
Bellander’s studio. At the time, Bellander’s studio
was a common meeting place where young photo-
graphers frequently congregated.. Hammarskio ̈ld
had his first individual exhibition at Rotohallen in
Stockholm in 1951, and he won the newspaper
‘‘Svenksa Dagbladet’’ prize that same year.
During the early 1950s, Hammarskio ̈ld traveled
to the United States, which strongly influenced his
developing photographic style. Hammarskio ̈ld set
off to discover what was happening abroad during
this transitional time for postwar Europe and met
leading photographers in New York such as Edward
Steichen, W. Eugene Smith, and Irving Penn.
Edward Steichen, director of photography at the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York at
the time, became an important influence for Ham-
marskio ̈ld as Anna Tellgren illustrates inTio Foto-
grafer, Self-perception,andPictorial Perception.They
formed a lasting friendship, and Steichen encouraged
the young photographer. Hammarskio ̈ld’s work was
included in two of Steichen’s exhibitions at MoMA:
Postwar European Photography (1953) and The
Family of Man(1955). Hammarskio ̈ld would later
take several striking portraits of the great photogra-
pher, includingEdward Steichen 1968.
In 1955–1956, Hammarskio ̈ld joined Conde ́
Nast in London, working forVogue magazine.
His contributions included fashion stories, por-
traits, advertising, food, and interior photography.
In addition to this commercial work, Hammars-
kio ̈ld wandered around London taking captivating
images of the city.Battersea Bridge, 1955andChel-
sea Embankment, 1955portray an enigmatic qual-
ity of London, with dramatic lighting and dark
silhouettes structuring the images. These photo-
graphs were exhibited at the Institute of Contem-
porary Arts in London in 1957.
At this time, Hammarskio ̈ld was also taking
black-and-white, highly contrasted but intimate por-
traits of his family. In his finely composed photo-
graphs of his pregnant wife,Caroline, 1955and his
daughter,Suzanne, 1961,Hammarskio ̈ld used accen-
tuated lighting and sharp contrasts. During this time
Hammarskio ̈ld took his remarkable portraits of the
American poet of Swedish origin Carl Sandburg,
resulting inSandburg, 1959. The image features dis-
tinctive lighting, adding sharpness and clarity to this
elegant portrait.
Returning from London in 1957 to work in
Stockholm, Hammarskio ̈ld became and remains a
freelance photographer. In 1958, he was one of the
10 founding members of ‘‘Tio Fotografer’’ (Ten
Photographers). The group included Hammars-
kio ̈ld, Sten Didrik Bellander, Harry Dittmer, Sven
Gillsa ̈tter, Rune Hassner, Tore Johnson, Hans
Malmberg, Pal-Nils Nilsson, Georg Oddner, and
Lennart Olson, many of whom were among the
young photographers who exhibited their work
together back in 1949. Ten years later, after many
of them had been abroad as a result of their post-
war isolation from the world of photography out-
side of Sweden, the group formed itself officially.
Like Hammarskio ̈ld, a few of the group had spent
time in the United States while some traveled
within Europe, notably to Paris. The reunited
group established an agency called Tiofoto in 1959.
Between 1958 and 1968, Hammarskio ̈ld pro-
duced picture stories, food photography, still-life,
portraits, and industrial photography. He also pre-
pared illustrations for many books.HAMMARSKIO ̈LD, HANS