Swedish photography critic Tintin Törncrantz delivers an annual remarkable text, and this year focuses on renowned photographer Anders Petersen. The analysis explores Petersen's work through both artistic and human lenses, examining his approach to documentary photography that emphasizes human connection over superficial observation.
Petersen, born in 1944, explained in a 2019 interview that his photography aims to discover what lies behind closed doors. "The more you are out and meet people, you discover that we are one large family and that we are not so different," he said. "We are relatives, the whole bunch, and that is the very underpinning of everything." His philosophy centers on entering spaces rather than observing from outside, believing that meaningful encounters happen only through genuine engagement.
The photographer's work draws comparisons to Robert Frank's celebrated journey across America in 1955-57, which became "The Americans" photobook. However, while Frank's approach was politically driven and manipulative ("I don't have any respect for anybody in front of my camera. I use them"), Petersen's images emphasize reciprocity and belonging. "I'd rather be someone's fellow man than someone's photographer," Petersen states, seeking refinement that comes from human challenge and interaction.
Unlike Helmut Newton, who used his camera as a shield, Petersen employs his pocket-sized Contax T3 as a key to human interaction. His portraits reveal vulnerable friendship, authenticity, and sacred trust, while maintaining the residual mystery that Walker Evans argued made the best photographs. This approach creates images filled with people who retain something for themselves, never fully revealed but deeply human.
The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm currently displays Petersen's "Institutional Trilogy" - three bodies of work spanning over a decade. The exhibition includes "Prison" (1981-84), "On the Line of Love" (1989-91) from an elderly care center, and "No One Has Seen It All" (1993-95) from a mental institution. These never-before-shown darkroom prints, expertly produced by Nikko Knösch, are accompanied by an overwhelming cinematic interpretation by Swedish-born filmmaker Johan Renck.
Renck suggested naming the exhibition "The Left Shore," likely referencing Ed van der Elsken's bohemian photo-novel "Love on the Left Bank" (1956). Curator Angie Åström brought Petersen and Renck together, explaining her interest in photography that never grows tiresome. "That is how I feel about Anders's pictures, you always find new stories in them," Åström notes. "This is also about Anders's new way of looking at the pictures because it has been so long since the books came out."
The trilogy, resonating with John Keats' 1817 sentiment about "the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of the imagination," is presented in three burgundy-painted cabinet rooms. Each series occupies one room, with displays ranging from salon hanging to tight grids. Petersen spent two and a half to three years on each project, forming lasting connections with subjects. "I remember the names of almost all of them, and they are people who stay with you throughout your life," he reflects.
Among the memorable subjects, Petersen recalls Elsa, ninety-four years old, who offered him sherry and danced to waltz music, and Bert, a charming gentleman who frequented the Gröna Lund amusement park. These relationships exemplify Petersen's approach to photography as human connection rather than mere documentation. He mentions Bruce Davidson's "East 100th Street" (1970) as an influence, praising Davidson's ability to balance technical skills with temperament, curiosity, and listening ability.
The identification process remains central to Petersen's work, acknowledging fear as natural and necessary. "I am anxious most of the time, but it is okay to be scared. You just have to deal with it. One way is to be able to photograph it, it's a foothold for you," he reveals. The goal is enabling audience identification with subjects, ensuring compassion opens understanding rather than letting situations become overwhelming.
One striking image shows a woman with a vacuum cleaner hose over her shoulder and a ghostlike male figure in the background. When curator Åström suggests the woman appears annoyed, Petersen corrects emphatically: "She's not annoyed at all. I know her well, and she is a determined, loving person who has worked in healthcare for thirty years." This correction illustrates Petersen's deep knowledge of his subjects and rejection of superficial interpretations.
Petersen's most famous work remains "Café Lehmitz," photographed starting in 1967 when he was a student at Christer Strömholm's Fotoskolan in Stockholm. Spending time in Hamburg's St. Pauli-Reeperbahn area, he became part of a community living in ways most people wouldn't understand. The resulting masterpiece has become both blessing and burden, something he must live with for life, similar to how Fritz Lang's "M" (1931) affected Peter Lorre.
Interesting individuals Petersen met in Hamburg included men who had committed terrible crimes and served long prison sentences. One suggested he photograph prison life, providing inspiration for the first series in his Institutional Trilogy. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's television series "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), featuring Franz Biberkopf fresh from prison, provided additional motivation for exploring institutional life.
In the early 1980s, prison warden Annbritt Grünewald authorized Petersen to spend years inside Österåker Prison's seven-meter-high walls north of Stockholm. The Prison series appears almost innocent compared to contemporary Swedish crime, highlighting dramatic social changes in less than half a century. Paul Strand's observation that "Photography is only a new road from a different direction, but moving toward the common goal that is life" perfectly captures Petersen's institutional work.
Åström discovered Petersen's work in Paris at Galerie VU and the Centre Pompidou. Returning to Stockholm in 2013, she contacted Petersen while he worked on a Bibliothèque nationale de France exhibition. Their collaboration began with shared frustration about Swedish photographers' lack of recognition in their homeland. "So few Swedish photographers are shown in Sweden, people are not proud of them, and they haven't taken care of Anders," Åström observed.
Their first collaboration, "Stockholm" at Liljevalchs City Art Gallery in 2019, became Sweden's largest photo exhibition and worked magic for Swedish photography recognition. When Åström contacted Johan Renck about Nationalmuseum collaboration, his response was immediate and enthusiastic: "I would do anything to be close to Anders Petersen." Renck had directed David Bowie's final music videos "Blackstar" (2015) and "Lazarus" (2016), filming the dying artist in hospital beds just days before his death on January 10, 2016.
Two publications from Gösta Flemming's Journal Photobooks accompany the exhibition. "Early Portraits" features Stockholm and Hamburg pictures from 1967-70, showing remarkable maturity while revealing Strömholm's influence. The book includes images marked with "C" - Strömholm's endorsement system for acceptable student work. "He marked a C on the few photos he could come to terms with," Petersen reveals. "I copied several of the negatives marked with C, small strange and hard images that were really just imitations of Christer's own."
"The Left Shore: Johan Renck Meets Anders Petersen" represents Renck's selection from Petersen's entire body of work. "This is not an exhibition catalogue, but rather a spinoff," Flemming explains. Renck's selection emphasizes darker elements - unsmiling faces, agony, raw sexuality, and people in beds. "I am probably a little darker than Anders," Renck admits. "I am drawn to a slightly more dramatic darkness."
Renck's cinematic interpretation transforms Petersen's still images into moving pictures, creating fictional before-and-after moments around frozen photographs. "It was about taking Anders's work and make it move, perhaps devising a before and after of the frozen moment that the image represents," Renck explains. "The only thing that is real is the image that Anders has taken; now the images are shifting and it is completely fictionalized."
The exhibition's film component features a large screen with Krister Linder's loud, overpowering score. The gloomy editing of rubberized floating pictures initially confuses viewers, requiring nearly the full runtime to recognize almost one hundred pictures from Petersen's career. While ambitious, the cinematic interpretation may overwhelm the subtle power of the original photographs.
Petersen's philosophy emphasizes taking time both as human being and photographer, avoiding spectacular and dramatic situations that lead to superficial photography. "I am looking to find a photography that unites people instead of isolating them," he explains. "I want to obtain a photography that people can identify with and recognize themselves in." His method involves simply sitting and talking with people, requiring genuine curiosity for success. Most importantly, Petersen maintains that "There is always hope, not just in the pictures but as a rule." The exhibition runs through January 11, 2026, at Stockholm's Nationalmuseum.
