Anders Petersen

Anders Petersen, a Swedish photographer born in 1944, is one of the most influential photographers of his generation. After studying under Christer Strömholm at Stockholm’s renowned School of Photography between 1966 and 1968, he began working as a photojournalist for Swedish newspapers and magazines. Since that time, he has been particularly interested in people on the fringe of society. Petersen seeks his subjects out in nightclubs, prisons, psychiatric institutions and nursing homes, capturing the socially isolated and the personal circumstances in compelling black and white visual essays.

Petersen found fame with his portraits of prostitutes, the homeless and other social rejects who took refuge and made their temporary home in Café Lehmitz, a dingy bar on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. These photos were taken at the end of the Sixties and reflect a sense of lives lived outside of social norms, molded by an open approach to sexuality, love and violence. Shortly after his photos were exhibited at the International Photography Festival in Arles in 1977, Schirmer/Mosel in Munich brought out the ‘Café Lehmitz’ book of prints which went on to acquire cult status.

Petersen has published some 30 books, all of which are on display in the exhibition. There are some 400 original photographs on show, from all phases of his work, as well as screenings of the documentary ‘A film about with Anders Petersen’ (52 minutes), a film made in 2006 by his friend, Swedish photographer JH Engström, in cooperation with Petersen.

For more information please go to Stadtmuseum München