Lennart Nilsson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lennart Nilsson
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Lennart Nilsson in Stockholm, March 2014
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| Born |
Lars Olof Lennart Nilsson
24 August 1922 |
| Died | 28 January 2017 (aged 94) |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Known for | Photography |
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Notable work
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A Child is Born (1965)
The Saga of Life (1982) The Miracle of Life (1983) |
| Movement | Life, Illustrated, Picture Post |
| Awards | Picture of the Year, National Press Photographers Association (1965). Photographer of the Year (1965). The Swedish Academy Nordic Authors’ Prize. The first Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (in 1980). The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences’ Big Gold Medal in 1989. ICP The Infinity Awards, Master of Photography (1992). Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal (1993). World Press Photo, Science & Technology stories (1996). The 12th presentation of the Swedish government’s Illis Quorum (2002). Emmy awards in 1982 and 1996. Among others. |
Lennart Nilsson (born August 24, 1922 – died January 28, 2017) was a famous Swedish photographer. He was known for his amazing photos of human embryos and other medical subjects. Before him, these subjects were thought to be impossible to photograph. He was also a master of macro photography, which means taking extreme close-up pictures. Many people consider him one of Sweden’s first modern photojournalists.
Contents
Biography of a Visionary Photographer
Early Life and Discovering Photography
Lennart Nilsson was born in Strängnäs, Sweden. His father worked on the railway. He gave Lennart a camera when Lennart was twelve years old. This gift sparked Lennart's interest in photography.
When he was about fifteen, Lennart watched a documentary about Louis Pasteur. This film made him very interested in microscopy, which is the study of tiny things using a microscope. Within a few years, Nilsson bought his own microscope. He started taking microphotographs of insects.
Starting a Professional Career
In his late teens and twenties, Nilsson began taking pictures of famous Swedes. These were called environmental portraits, showing people in their natural surroundings.
He started his professional career in the mid-1940s. He worked as a freelance photographer. This meant he worked for different companies, often for Åhlen & Åkerlund in Stockholm. One of his first jobs was covering the liberation of Norway in 1945 during World War II.
Gaining International Attention
Some of his early photo essays became very famous. These included A Midwife in Lapland (1945) and Polar Bear Hunting in Spitzbergen (1947). Another well-known work was Fishermen at the Congo River (1948). These photo essays were published in big magazines like Life, Illustrated, and Picture Post. This brought him international attention.
In 1954, a book called Sweden in Profile was published. It featured eighty-seven of his portraits of famous Swedes. His 1955 book, Reportage, showed many of his early works. In 1963, his photo essay about the Swedish Salvation Army appeared in magazines and in his book Hallelujah.
Pioneering Medical Photography
In the mid-1950s, Nilsson started trying new ways to take extreme close-up photos. He used very thin endoscopes, which are tiny cameras doctors use to look inside the body. These tools became available in the mid-1960s. With them, he took amazing photos of living human blood vessels and body parts.
He became world-famous in 1965. His photographs showing the beginning of human life were featured on the cover of Life magazine. They were also spread across sixteen pages in an article called “Drama of Life Before Birth.” These photos were also published in other major magazines around the world.
The photographs were part of his book A Child is Born (1965). Images from this book were printed in the April 30, 1965, edition of Life. This issue sold eight million copies in just four days! Some of these incredible photos were even sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft.
Nilsson explained how he took photos of living fetuses during medical procedures. These procedures included laparoscopy and amniocentesis. He also talked about how he lit the inside of the mother's womb. He once described a shoot during surgery: "The fetus was moving... you could see everything—heartbeats and umbilical cord and so on. It was extremely beautiful, really beautiful!"
Capturing the Invisible World
In 1969, he started using a scanning electron microscope for a Life magazine project. This allowed him to show how the body's tiny parts work. He is often recognized for taking the first pictures of the human immunodeficiency virus. In 2003, he took the first image of the SARS virus.
Around 1970, he joined the staff of the Karolinska Institutet. This is a famous medical university in Sweden. Nilsson also helped create documentaries. These included The Saga of Life (1982), The Miracle of Life (1982), Odyssey of Life (1996), and Life's Greatest Miracle (2001).
Lennart Nilsson passed away on January 28, 2017.
Awards and Honors for His Contributions
Lennart Nilsson received many awards and honors for his groundbreaking work.
- He became a member of the Swedish Society of Medicine in 1969.
- He received honorary doctorates from important universities. These included the Karolinska Institute in 1976 and the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany in 2002. He also received one from Linköping University in Sweden in 2003.
- He won the Swedish Academy Nordic Authors' Prize.
- He was the first person to receive the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 1980.
- In 1989, he received the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences' Big Gold Medal.
- In 2002, he was given the Swedish government's Illis quorum award.
- His documentaries won Emmy awards in 1983 and 1996.
- In 1993, he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Progress medal. This was for his important advances in the science and technology of photography.
Nilsson's work is displayed in many famous places. These include the British Museum in London, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, and the Modern Museum in Stockholm.
Since 1998, the Lennart Nilsson Award has been given out every year. It celebrates amazing photography in science. The Lennart Nilsson Foundation sponsors this award.
Works
Books by Lennart Nilsson
- 1959 Myror (Ants)
- 1959 Liv i hav (Life in the Ocean)
- 1963 Halleluja, en bok om frälsningsarmén (Hallelujah, a book about the Salvation Army)
- 1965, 1976, 1990, 2003 Ett barn blir till (A Child is Born)
- 1973 Se människan (Behold Man)
- 1975 Så blev du till (How You were Made)
- 1982 Vårt inre i närbild (Abbreviated version of Behold Man)
- 1984 Nära naturen. En upptäcktsfärd i naturens mikrokosmos (Close to Nature: An Exploration in Nature's Microcosm)
- 1986 I mammas mage (Being Born)
- 1993 Vi ska få ett syskon (We are Getting a Sibling)
- 2002 Hans livs bilder (Images of His Life)
- 2006 Life
See also
In Spanish: Lennart Nilsson para niños
