Nykvist was regarded by many as the greatest cinematographer of all time

Nykvist won Academy Awards for Bergman films Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Fanny and Alexander in 1982.

He died on Wednesday at a nursing home in Sweden where he was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, his son Carl-Gustaf Nykvist said.

He also worked on several films with Woody Allen and was the cinematographer on 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Other film work included The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Chaplin and Sleepless in Seattle.

Nykvist first collaborated with Bergman on Sawdust and Tinsel in 1954 and went on to become the director's first choice for cinematography, primarily because of his sense of lighting.

Together with Ingmar, he created movie history Carl-Gustaf Nykvist, on his father Sven Nykvist

"Together with Ingmar, he created movie history with those lighting arrangements," said Carl-Gustaf Nykvist, who directed the 2000 documentary Light Keeps Me Company, about his father.

"He was called 'the master of light' because of the moods and atmospheres he could create with light. It was a near impossibility to create the moods he created," he added.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape? director Lasse Hallstrom also paid tribute to his fellow Swede.

"Sven Nykvist was somewhat of a father-figure for me," Hallstrom told Swedish news agency TT.

"He taught me very much during the movies we made together. He was the one who got Americans and the world to realise that lighting could be simple and realistic."

The last film Nykvist made was Curtain Call in 1999.

His wife, Ulrika, died in 1982. He is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, Helena Berlin, and grandchildren Sonia Sondell and Marilde Nykvist.