John Alinder, son of a farmer, was born in 1878 in the village of Savasta, in Uppland, a province in eastern central Sweden. He remained in the village all his life. He chose not to take over his parents' farm, instead becoming a self-taught photographer and jack of all trades. He was a music lover, holder of the Swedish agency for the British record label and gramophone brand His Master's Voice. For a time he ran a shop from his home, and he even operated an illicit bar. From the 1910s to the 1930s he portrayed local people, the surrounding landscape and their way of life. His portraits are extraordinary - children placed on chairs, old ladies, people perched in trees, labourers and confirmation candidates; often depicted against a background of foliage and sprawling greenery penetrated by sunlight. The Alinder collection was 'discovered' in the 1980s when a curator found over 8,000 glass plates stacked away in a library basement.
