GSR, The Group of Swedish Commericial Photographers, was founded in 1966 by, among others, Arne Nilsson, Heinz von Sterneck, Stig Grip, Stig Andersson and Ulf Cronberg. The thought was to develop the individual photographers companies comercially and to meet on a regular basis in order to inspire each other creatively. At this time, pricing, education and joint purchases were important topics on the agenda and GSR also worked together with SFF (Swedish Photographers Association) to enhance the importance of as well as solve these topics. The bond between GSR and SFF has always been strong and most GSR members are also members of SFF. GSR has several traditions where the annual meeting is one of the most important. Guests, photographers, from all over the place have been invited by GSR to lecture and meet the members under relaxing circumstances, or the other way around; GSR members have travelled to meet the "guests" in their own countries. This seems to be a quite unique phenomenon among professional photographers and has been met by positive curiousity from colleagues around the globe. The list of prominent guests is long and impressive: Richard Avedon, Olivieri Toscani, Anton Corbijn, Teun Hocks, Dennis Savini & Irene Ruefenacht, Nadav Kander, Andreas Heumann, Derek Seaward, Hans Neleman, Knut Bry, John Parker, Georg Oddner, Dag Thorenfeldt, David Hamilton, Sven Nykvist, Pierre Winter and many, many others. Irving Penn, Hans Strand and Hans Hammarsköld have visited GSR in local meetings. GSR has now existed for over 40 years and a lot has happened with and in the industry during this period of time. However, GSR continues to be an important forum for professional photographers, with an opportunity to exchange experiences, learnings as well as to learn, and to be inspired by colleagues.