Gunnar Høst Sjøwall (22 January 1936 – 9 September 2013) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

and former competitive

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

. Sjøwall was a son of photographer Gunnar Theodor Sjøwall. As a child, he showed early promise in tennis and was given intensive training. Sjøwall went on to compete in tennis, winning 14 national championships between 1955 and 1966. He also made a good showing in several international tournaments. He represented the clubs

SK Njård SK Njård is a Norwegian multi-sports club from Vestre Aker, Oslo. It is named after Njörðr in Norse mythology. Founded in 1924, it has sections for alpine skiing, fencing, team handball, cross-country skiing, tennis, gymnastics, and rhythmi ...

and Stabekk TK. Sjøwall had an apprenticeship in photography with Edvard Welinder in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. He was educated at Institutt for Färgfoto (Institute for Color Photography) in

Lund, Sweden Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

. He won the Portrait of the Year award in the 1967 ''Photography Yearbook'', as well as other national and international awards. He completed a number of portrait assignments for the Norwegian royal family, the

Norwegian Nobel Institute The Norwegian Nobel Institute ( no, Det Norske Nobelinstitutt) is located in Oslo, Norway. The institute is located at Henrik Ibsen Street 51 in the center of the city. It is situated just by the side of the Royal Palace. History The institute ...

, and other large organizations. In 1968 at the age of 32, Sjøwall took over his father's studio. In addition to the assignments noted above, he completed a number of photographic restorations. He died in September 2013.

References

1936 births 2013 deaths Sportspeople from Oslo Norwegian male tennis players Photographers from Oslo Norwegian expatriates in Sweden {{Norway-tennis-bio-stub