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Embryo photographer Lennart Nilsson dies at 94

Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson, who shot to fame in the 1960s with photographs of human foetuses and embryos, died on Saturday at the age of 94, his family told TT news agency.

Published: 29 January 2017 10:12 CET
Embryo photographer Lennart Nilsson dies at 94
A stunning image from Lennart Nilsson's work A Child is Born. Photo: Lennart Nilsson/TT
A war photographer, documentary-maker and portraitist, Nilsson used an ultra-fine tube called an endoscope, to take pictures of cells and blood vessels, and went on to take images of human foetuses and embryos.
   
His 1965 book, “A Child is Born,” was one of the most successful photography albums ever, selling in the millions and becoming an iconic work for the anti-abortion movement.
   
Only later did it become widely known that many of the embryos used in the photo-essay were not alive, as many readers had thought, but had been aborted.
 
At Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, Nilsson went on to explore scientific photography.
   
He is commonly credited with the first photographs of the AIDS virus and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, using a scanning electron microscope.
 
Below is a photo of Lennart Nilsson attending a 2015 exhibition of his work. (Maja Suslin/TT)
 
 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Danish photographer wins World Press Photo award

Danish photographer Mads Nissen has won the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award.

Published: 15 April 2021 17:20 CEST
Danish photographer wins World Press Photo award
See below for the full version of the award-winning photograph. Photo: Mads Nissen/Ritzau Scanpix

Nissen took the winning photograph on an assignment in Brazil in which he portrayed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on life in some of the South American country’s hardest-hit areas.

The photograph shows Rosa Luzia Lunardi (85) and nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza at Viva Bem care home, São Paulo, Brazil, on August 5th 2020.

The two people holding are each other while wearing face masks and separated by a plastic sheet.

Nissen, who works as a staff photographer for newspaper Politiken, has now won the international award twice.

“To me, this is a story about hope and love in the most difficult times. When I learned about the crisis that was unfolding in Brazil and the poor leadership of president Bolsonaro who has been neglecting this virus from the very beginning, who’s been calling it ‘a small flu,’ I really felt an urge to do something about it,” Nissen commented via the World Press Photo website.

World Press Photo jury member Kevin WY Lee said the “iconic image of COVID-19 memorializes the most extraordinary moment of our lives, everywhere.”

“I read vulnerability, loved ones, loss and separation, demise, but, importantly, also survival—all rolled into one graphic image. If you look at the image long enough, you’ll see wings: a symbol of flight and hope,” Lee said via the award’s website.

Photo: Mads Nissen/Ritzau Scanpix

The annual World Press Photo contests reward visual journalism and digital storytelling.

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