Stockholm sedan 50-talet (3 filmer)

Från Klara till City Many pensioners remember their childhood in Stockholm and have their own memories of what the city looked like before the major redevelopment and the construction of the underground through City.

Photographer Lennart af Petersens documented Klara as well as Vällingby and Östermalm. He was born in Skåne and trained in Denmark before taking a job at Stockholms Stadsmuseum in 1942, where he photographed the city’s development for 35 years. He did not like what he saw, which may have helped make his photographs all the more powerful. His major account of Klara, Den försvinnande staden, is irreplaceable.

For ”Från Klara till City”, Stadsmuseet’s Lars Westberg selected photographs showing the transformation of the Klara neighbourhood into today’s City. The photographs are accompanied by Thomas Botwid’s voice; he also wrote the script. In Sveriges Radio’s programme archive, Anders found recordings of several of the people photographed by Lennart af Petersens. In the programme, we also hear the writers Stig Dagerman, Per Wästberg, Nils Ferlin and Bo Bergman, as well as the architect Peter Celsing and radio reporters Lennart Hyland and Karl Axel Arvidsson, walking around the shops and schools of the Klara neighbourhood in the middle of the last century. “A brilliant documentary film”, wrote DN after the premiere.

Lennart af Petersens Östermalm

After Klara, Lennart af Petersens continued documenting Östermalm in the 1960s, among other things for a book with text by Per Wästberg. Much later, in the late 1990s, Anders heard the newly rediscovered photographer—already well into his eighties—talk about his photographs of Östermalm at Stockholms stadsmuseum. Anders noticed that he had carefully researched the facts and suggested that he and Lennart make a film about his Östermalm photographs. Some time later, three photographers—Anders, Lennart and Mikael Bodner—could be seen walking along the streets Lennart had photographed more than 30 years earlier. In the studio, Lennart continued to comment on his photographs. The film ”Lennart af Peter sens Östermalm” was shown on SVT in 2003, the same year the photographer turned 90. He died a year later.

VÄLLINGBY - Mönsterförort i förändring

The idea of the ABC town was first presented in 1945. The first prototype was to be built in Vällingby. The idea was to create a complete community there, with workplaces, housing and a town centre—the ABC concept. It would be linked to an efficient public transport system. In 1954, the grand opening took place. 75,000 people took the underground to Vällingby that day!

50 years later, Svenska Bostäder is renovating Vällingby. Time takes its toll on model suburbs too. A great deal has changed, but the area’s qualities remain. It has been designated an area of national interest for cultural heritage conservation! Among those appearing in the programme, which was produced on behalf of Svenska Bostäder, are musician Benny Andersson, artist Peter Dahl and architects Jon Höjer, Ove Swanson, Laila Reppen and Gert Wingårdh.