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Sven Nykvist

A master of natural lighting, Swedish cameraman Sven Nykvist found his artistic soul mate in Ingmar Bergman, collaborating with the great writer-director on more than 20 projects. Nykvist's parents, Lutheran missionaries in the Congo, had left him and his siblings to be raised by relatives in Stockholm, and the sense of detachment created by their long absences helped prepare him for his long association with Bergman and the themes of alienation and isolation that captivated them both. Deciding early on a career as a cinematographer, Nykvist attended a photography school (there were no Swedish film schools then) and began working at Sandrews studios as a camera assistant in 1941, hoping to emulate the great Swedish cameramen Julius Jaenzon, Goran Strindberg and Gunnar Fischer. He graduated to director of photography on "13 Chairs" (1945), helmed the documentary "Reverence for Life" (1952, about Albert Schweitzer) and even co-directed and co-scripted "Under the Southern Cross" (also 1952), based on an experience his parents had with a witch doctor, before teaming with Bergman (himself the son of a Lutheran minister) for the first time.