Born in the county of Yorkshire, UK, to parents that both served in the RAF, Sigvaldi Friðarsonur moved to Zimbabwe at a young, impressionable age.
The family lived out in the vast landscape of Zimbabwe, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and were in close contact with the many wild animals that lived in the surrounding areas. Sigvaldi’s father was sure to always have his camera close to hand in order to record the events of their extraordinary lives in this exotic land. Sigvaldi has kept those family photos safe and close to his heart.
His education was gained from a technical school in Zimbabwe with a return to England later on to achieve a BSc in engineering.
Sigvaldi later moved to South Africa and found employment with an advertising agency, this new employment saw him rediscovering his love of photography and put a camera into his hands.
His commissions for the agency were photographing cars in rural African settings and this led to him later being appointed as an art director working with premium car brands. Despite the luxury vehicles he photographed, his shots always involved country scenery and landscape backdrops.
When Sigvaldi moved to London, he used his experience as an art director in combination with his love for photography to create personal artworks and exhibit them publicly. These works led to Sigvaldi receiving editorials in creative publications such as Creative Review and Blitz, as well as receiving commissions that led to more world travel.
After some years in London, the sunshine began to call Sigvaldi again and he moved to Portugal, taking a job as a creative director for an industry-leading ad agency, and later freelancing as a black and white landscape photographer. He began to research and study the work of Ansel Adams, whose photography has influenced and inspired Sigvaldi greatly ever since.
In addition to receiving a number of awards and a considerable amount of publicity in magazines and other publications, Sigvaldi has also held numerous exhibitions leading to having works held at the Portuguese Museum of Photography and the art library of the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.
Sigvaldi’s 12 year period of living in Portugal proved to be incredibly productive as he managed to cover most of the country in that time and capture many photographs.
He returned again to the UK and whilst living in Somerset began to put together collections of his artworks into a publishing format. Now numbering almost 20 books and magazines published, Sigvaldi shows no signs of slowing down.
The British Library has copies of each of Sigvaldi’s books, he has also exhibited many of the works published within them and his book of Icelandic landscapes and scenery ‘Íslandslag’ is held at the Embassy of Iceland in London.
In 2018, he decided to take a break from photography and completed a BA Fine Art Degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Whilst the degree course refreshed his creativity and gave him an inspiration boost, it also made him realise how much he missed photography and just how passionate he was for capturing the landscape in that medium.
Sigvaldi is currently back on his photographic journey, creating more artworks in his signature black and white photographic style, and exhibiting them.
