Agnes Hansson was a prominent amateur photographer.

Agnes Hansson was born in Örkelljunga, Kristianstad county, in 1888. Her parents, Anna and Johan Magnus Hansson, had seven children in total. Agnes Hansson was the fourth child born in the family.

Agnes Hansson trained as a nurse at the Red Cross hospital (now Röda Korsets högskola) in Huddinge and then worked at a children’s health centre which was run by Föreningen Mjölkdroppen in Stockholm. During her spare time she engaged in photography, learning the basics by attending an evening course. She also joined Fotografiska Föreningen which held a number of lectures that enabled her to learn even more about the art of photography.

In January 1939 an exhibition called Det nya ögat: fotografien 100 år was held. The exhibition had been put together in order to raise awareness of the centenary of photography and it was a collaborative effort between Fotografiska Föreningen and Svenska Fotografers Förbund along with Liljevalchs konsthall which hosted the display. A catalogue was produced in conjunction with the exhibition in which it states that Agnes Hansson submitted four photographs in the section dedicated to photography as a career and a hobby.

In 1946 a group formed within Fotografiska Föreningen and set up its own club, called Stockholms Kameraklubb. Agnes Hansson was one of several amateur photographers who joined up but there were also a lot of professional photographers in the membership. Stockholms Kameraklubb sought to provide a comfortable space where likeminded people could meet and discuss photography. In 1949 the club held an exhibition at De Unga gallery on Vasagatan in Stockholm. Agnes Hansson was the sole female to participate in the exhibition, which was presented as a response to the display mounted by the Unga Fotografer group at the same gallery previously that year.

Agnes Hansson was one of the most prominent amateur photographers of her era in Stockholm. She frequently entered photography competitions and in 1942 she came second in the championship competition held by FOTO magazine. That same year she won a major amateur photography competition. Her images often embody a poetic quality and contain influences from the contemporary pictorialism trend, using a soft focus and muted lighting. Her pictures often exude a quietly humorous aspect and she was skilled at capturing the moment. Agnes Hansson is often associated with the so-called ‘Rosenlund’ era of Swedish photography which was dominated by poetic nature imagery and idyllic everyday scenes.

Agnes Hansson’s work was frequently published in Årets bilder, an organ published by the tourism association Svenska Turistföreningen, but also in the aforenoted FOTO and in Nordisk tidskrift för fotografi, published by Helmer Bäckström from 1934–1939. As one of the longest standing ‘Rosenlund’ members Agnes Hansson’s street pictures were published in several magazines late into the 1950s. These images call to mind the view of Paris produced by French photographers at that time. Agnes Hansson’s favourite motif, however, was the Swedish mountains although her best pictures are said to be those of Scania – nature scenes, flowers, summer landscapes, mirror reflections in water, shadow images, and still lifes. Her images capture a lyrical intimacy.

Several of her photographs can be seen at Moderna museet and at Nordiska museet, both in Stockholm.

Agnes Hansson died in 1961 in Helsingborg. She is buried at Gamla kyrkogården (the old cemetery) in Örkelljunga.