press photographer
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
, now working as a freelance. He gained special recognition in 2000 when he won the World Press Photo of the Year competition for his work in Kosovo.
Early life
Born in 1963 in
Holbæk
Holbæk () is a town in Denmark and the seat of Holbæk municipality with a population of 29,608 (1 January 2022).Denmark, Larsen graduated from high school in 1983 and started freelancing as a photographer. In 1984, he was already volunteering in the darkroom at '' Ekstra Bladet,'' a Danish tabloid. From 1986, he apprenticed with '' BT'' and in 1989 he attended the Danish School of Journalism in
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
, specializing in
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
.
Career
He became a staff photographer for ''Ekstra Bladet'' in 1989. In 1996, he joined the Danish daily '' Berlingske Tidende'' where, in 1999, he was appointed head photographer. In 2009, he left the newspaper to open his own firm, ''Photobyclausbjoern aps'', serving newspapers, magazines and businesses on a freelance basis.
His work has centred on wars and conflicts in Israel, Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan as well as on stories from the Soviet Union and the United States. In 2000, in connection with his World Press Photo of the Year award, '' The Washington Post'' commented: "The latter award, one of the most sought after in camera journalism, is one of which Larsen is especially proud. His photograph of a wounded Kosovar Albanian refugee, his head swathed in bandages, his eyes fixed in a thousand-mile stare, was among 44,000 entries submitted by shooters around the world. 'I tried to talk to him,' Claus recalled of the day he made the picture, in April of '99, 'but he was in kind of a trance. I took four or five frames, and then he just disappeared.'"
Awards
*1989: Danish Photographer of the Year "Claus Bjørn Larsen", ''Presse Fotograf Forbundet'' . Retrieved on 3 March 2010.
*1999: Fuji Photographer Denmark
*1999: World Press Photo of the Year"1999, Claus Bjørn Larsen, World Press Photo of the Year" ''World Press Photo'' Retrieved 3 March 2010.
*2002: Danish Photographer of the Year
See also
*
Photography in Denmark
In Denmark, photography has developed from strong participation and interest in the very history of photography, beginnings of the art in 1839 to the success of a considerable number of Danes in the world of photography today.
Pioneers Mads Alst ...