Born in Strängnäs, Sweden, on August 24, 1922, Lennart Nilsson began his career as a freelance photojournalist. His work spans more than seven decades, beginning in the early 1940s when modern photojournalism made its breakthrough in Sweden.
His early photographic essays, including A Midwife in Lapland (1945), Polar Bear Hunting in Spitzbergen (1947), Congo (1948) and Sweden in Profile (1954) gained international attention through publication in leading photojournalism magazines such as Life, Picture Post and Illustrated.
In the 1950s, Nilsson began experimenting with new photographic techniques including macro- and microphotography, which led to the books, Ants (Myror) and Life in the Sea (Liv i hav).
In the 1960s, the use of specially designed, ultra-slim endoscopes made it possible for Nilsson to capture on film the inner workings of blood vessels and various cavities of the human body. The book A Child is Born (Ett barn blir till) first published in 1965 is undoubtedly Nilsson’s most famous work.
In the 1970s, Nilsson began to use the scanning electron microscope to capture images of the inner workings of the human body. This shift in the focus of his work gave Nilsson the opportunity to work on the premises of Karolinska Institute.
What remains remarkable is the combination of his unending patience to fully explore his subjects, combined with a journalist’s eye, artist’s sense of form and colour, and technician’s inventive skills to maximize available light and capture spectacular images.
In 1976 Lennart Nilsson was awarded an honorary doctorate at Karolinska Institutet. In 2009 he was given the title Professor’s name by the Swedish Government and in 2012 he was awarded the Karolinska Institutet Jubilee Medal (Gold class) for his long-standing and groundbreaking contributions to the development and innovative advancement of medical photography.
Lennart Nilsson passed away in January 2017.
Photographer Lennart Nilsson Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT
More About the Award
Excerpt from the 1998 proclamation:
“Lennart Nilsson has long been a world-renowned name, awarded for his unique achievements, where the image meets research and itself becomes science. Lennart has recently passed the age of 75, yet remains as curiously active as ever. His contributions serve as a model and inspiration for those working with imagery in the medical, biological, and technological sciences. For this reason, a foundation is being established: the Lennart Nilsson Award.”
A group of influential Swedes supported this idea and helped establish an endowment fund for the award. The group consisted of Ingvar Carlsson, former Prime Minister; Hans Wigzell, Rector of the Karolinska Institutet; Sven Nykvist, Swedish cinematographer; Bo G. Erikson, Swedish TV producer; Sam Nilsson, Director General of Sveriges Television; Staffan Larsson, Federation of Technical and Medical Photographers; Agneta Lundström, Director of the Maritime Museum; Per Sköld, former Marshal of the Royal Court of Sweden; Marcus Storch, former CEO and Group President of AGA; and Jan-Erik Wikström, former Swedish Minister.
The Lennart Nilsson Award was formally established in 1998, and on October 29, 1998, Nils Åslund, Professor of Physics at the Royal Institute of Technology, became the first recipient of the award at a ceremony in Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, held in connection with the installation of new professors at the Karolinska Institutet.
Today, the ceremony takes place at Aula Medica, still in connection with the installation of new professors at the Karolinska Institutet.
You can read more about the award on the Karolinska Institutet’s website.
For the full details, please refer to the source.
Explore our other articles on the Lennart Nilsson Award, its laureates, and their research findings.
Source:
https://www.lennartnilsson.com/om-lennart-nilsson/lennart-nilsson-award/
