A Collection of Photographs - Ove Renqvist's Collection

The well-known photography and book dealer Ove Renqvist was born in 1938 and spent his life working as a filmmaker, photographer, antiques expert, and book collector. His areas of expertise included antique prints, photography, and rare books. As early as the 1970s, he opened and ran a print antiquarian bookstore in Stockholm’s Old Town for many years. Renqvist owned one of Sweden’s largest collections of so-called stereoscopic images and was among the country’s foremost experts in historical photography, covering works from the 1840s to the turn of the 20th century. He had a deep fascination with the various techniques of early photography, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, stereoviews, and albumen prints. During the large-scale demolition of the Klara district in Stockholm, Ove Renqvist actively photographed and filmed the transformation. The Stockholm City Museum holds one of his documentary films, which captures the final day of operation at the restaurant Tennstopet in Klara before demolition began and the new city center took shape. Ove Renqvist passed away in 2023.