Brita Sofia Hesselius facts for kids

Brita Sofia Hesselius (1801–1866) was a Swedish photographer. She made a special kind of early photograph called a daguerreotype. She was very likely the first professional female photographer in Sweden.

A Pioneer Photographer

Brita Sofia Hesselius was born in 1801. Her family lived in a place called Alster parish in Sweden. Her father, Olof Hesselius, worked as an inspector for a large estate.

From 1845 to 1853, Brita Sofia ran a school for girls in Karlstad. At the same time, she also had her own photography studio. In her studio, she created daguerreotypes. These were some of the very first types of photographs.

She was the first professional female photographer in Sweden. Before her, people thought Hedvig Söderström was the first. Hedvig opened her studio in Stockholm in 1857. Brita Sofia also started before Marie Kinnberg, who worked as a photography assistant in 1851.

Brita Sofia Hesselius was also one of the first professional photographers in Sweden overall. She started her work just a few years after Johan Adolf Sevén. He opened the very first photography studio in Sweden in 1841. This also made her one of the first female professional photographers in the world. She began her work shortly after Bertha Beckmann, another early female photographer.

Her Life and Work

Besides taking photographs, Brita Sofia Hesselius also painted portraits using oil paints. In 1853, she moved her studio and her school to Stockholm. Later in her life, she moved to France. She passed away in a town called Menton in 1866.