Viggo Rivad

Viggo Reinholdt Rivad (3 July 1922 – 8 February 2016) was a Danish photographer who started as an autodidact in 1946, and went on to win numerous competitions in the 1950s and 1960s.

Rivad, who also earned a living as a taxi driver, was a quiet, dedicated photographer, concentrating on disadvantaged areas and people on the fringes of society.

He had had a number of jobs, and had attempted to become both a racing cyclist and a painter, before he began photographing Copenhagen's coffee bars and night life in the 1940s.

His ostensibly spontaneous pictures, frequently submitted to newspaper competitions, were often carefully prearranged compositions designed to convey a clear message.

In 1972, Rivad's series on the occupation of the Fredensgården district of Copenhagen was typical of the times when more attention was given to demonstrators, and those affected by conflicts, than to the politicians involved.

[6] During his career, Rivad produced photographic series on Spain, Morocco, Israel, Mexico, Venice, the Sahara, the Soviet Union, Auschwitz, China, Yemen, Central Asia, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Tunis, Egypt, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and Denmark.