Kåre Kivijärvi

Kåre Kivijärvi (1938-1991) was born in Hammerfest in the north of Norway into a Kven Family, a family of Finnish ancestry. He studied photography at the Folkwangschule für Gestaltung in Essen, Germany, after working as an apprentice photographer for the newspaper Finnmark Dagblad. In Essen he met Otto Steinert (1915–1978), one of the most important and influential photographers of the post-war period whom he trained under before returning back to Norway.

Kivijärvi's work was the first to be accepted by one of the main annual art exhibition in Norway, the Autumn Exhibition. In this respect it can be said that he contributed to establish photography as a distinct art form in Norway.