Stefan Lundgren is an award-winning photographer. He has coauthored and published a Swedish language book entitled "Antarctica, In the Interest of All Mankind", which won a World Wildlife Foundation (Panda) Award for Wildlife Book of the Year. He has also coauthored and published two other books: "Antarctica, A Souvenir from the Seventh Continent" and "Svalbard, The Land Beyond the North Cape". Through his photographic stock agencies, Stefan's images are published in many publications including a National Geographic book, German GEO, Scientific American, Time Magazine, and Newsweek, as well as various encyclopedias, textbooks and wildlife books.

Stefan was born in 1952 and raised in Smaland, Sweden. His career began as a photojournalist in Bihar, India. His organization was backed by a grant from the Swedish government. For seven years he lived and worked with the indigenous people, helping to build a school and agricultural program. When back in Sweden he gave photo presentations to raise money for the cause. The Polar Regions had always intrigued Stefan and he seized the opportunity to work with the legendary Lars Eric Lindblad. Aboard the M.S. Lindblad Explorer, he traveled to remote ports including the Arctic and Antarctic regions. His polar interest became his true passion, the birds and mammals so beautifully adapted to the extremes of cold and wind. It is here that he began his photographic legacy.

In 1986 Stefan was selected to be part of a Swedish team hired to support the Indian government build two scientific stations on remote Queen Mauds Land in East Antarctica. For seven seasons he worked aboard the M.S. Thuleland, traveling from Goa, India to the Antarctic continent. Spending so much time in the southern ocean while supporting oceanographic research in the stormiest seas on earth, Stefan felt the lure of the ocean. He studied and photographed the rhythm of the seabirds, especially albatrosses, soaring above these enormous waves. Critics often say that his seascapes are reminiscent of paintings in their texture and composition.

 Upon reaching their final destination along the Antarctic ice shelf, Stefan took time between constant snow blizzards and hurricanes to confer with the penguins, the seals, and the whales. He studied how the light interacted with the ice and with the animals. He watched and patiently waited persistently to be in the right place at the right time, very often all night long out on the sea ice under the midnight sun in the midst of temperatures hovering around 20 degrees below zero. These interactions he captured in his images convey a surrealism of natural wonder and beauty.

When Stefan encountered his first wild polar bear, it became his favorite photographic subject. Svalbard, a Norwegian Archipelago in the High Arctic, is a condensed version of the entire Arctic landscape with fjords, glaciers, mountains, and pack ice. This, for Stefan, is the most inspiring setting for finding and photographing polar bears, the top predators in their domain. He thrives on the thrill of encountering an enormous bear navigating gracefully through icy footing. Stefan captures the essence of these experiences in the romantic style of Scandinavian photographers, placing this large, majestic animal in an even larger landscape, thus dramatizing the dignity of the polar bear's life.

Today, Stefan spends part of his summers up in the High Arctic and part of his winters down in the Antarctic Peninsula working for Lindblad Expeditions aboard the M.S. Endeavour. Using more than 20 years of experience, he works as a naturalist, a guide, and a lecturer. Stefan and his wife also live a quieter "land" life in Sedona, Arizona. Here, he explores the dramatic southwest landscapes with his panoramic and large format cameras. He chases the light and the weather interacting with the ancient red rocks. Stefan has discovered that nature repeats its shapes in many media, rock and ice alike, carved from wind and water.