Anders Hanser

Anders Hanser was born in 1945. A keen photographer since his teens, after a career as a radio producer he made photography his full-time occupation in the late 1970s. Anders formed his own company, which today primarily produces video and multislide presentations.

In 1978 Anders Hanser was putting together a radio series in which he wanted ABBA to appear. The group turned him down, but the group’s manager, Stig Anderson, offered to take part. Visiting the Polar Music offices Anders met Vice President Görel Johnsen. A romance blossomed, and the couple were married two years later.

Anders soon became a personal friend of the ABBA members, which gave him an unprecedented access to the group in his work as photographer. Apart from numerous straightforward publicity pictures, he captured them in the recording studio, on stage as well as backstage, and when they were making their music videos.

Although Anders Hanser’s personal friendship with ABBA remains, the publication of the 1999 book From ABBA To Mamma Mia!, which collected more than 500 of his pictures, provided a fitting conclusion to his photographic relationship with the members. His final ABBA-related pictures, included in the book, come from the London opening of the musical Mamma Mia! in 1999.

That same year Anders Hanser contributed greatly to the successful ABBA – The Exhibition at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm. His slide show presentation ABBA – The Pictures, created especially for the exhibition, proved to be one of its most popular features.