Dreams, fears and desires. The infinite surfaces of Anders Petersen’s photography

and Teresa Lanna.

«I know that to take a good photo you need to be at the right distance. I have to be one foot in and one foot out. My problem is that I always end up being two-legged».

Making this statement is Anders Petersen, one of the most famous and renowned photographers in the world. Born in Stockholm in 1944, he studied photography with Christer Strömholm (1918 – 2002) at the photography school in his hometown. Strömholm, as a teacher, became Petersen’s best friend, and accompanied him on his personal and professional journey. He started taking pictures at a very young age; His shots are characterized by a raw and direct style, which captures the souls of the people and the essence of the situations he portrays: «I try to capture the truth in its pure form, without filters or prejudices». This can already be seen inside Lehmitz Coffee, one of the most important photography books of all time, which marks his international debut and which will become a cornerstone in the European photography world. Published in 1978, the text depicts everyday life Lehmitz Coffee, bar in St. Pauli, the red light district that was on the edge of Hamburg’s great harbor and that was frequented by the weak and lonely; those who society usually ends up marginalizing by calling them “ends”: prostitutes, drug addicts, drunkards, sailors, homosexuals, vagabonds, lovers of relationships… all in one place that welcomed them twenty-four hours a day. Petersonwho at that time was only a twenty-three-year-old photography student, was so fascinated by this refuge of the soul in pain, that he made it a real project that lasted three years (1966-68). Lehmitz Coffee later it became part of pop culture at the time Tom Waits he uses his photo as the cover of his album Rain Dog (1985). «I went in for a beer. There was a jukebox playing and I started dancing with the girls. At one point I noticed that they were playing with my Nikon, which I had left on the table: they were throwing each other, taking pictures, but it was just a game, which I also asked to participate in taking pictures with. to be photographed».

For three years Peterson he went to Hamburg almost every month, slept in the kitchen of Café Lehmitz and carefully photographed the fragile humanity that visited the place, until he became part of it: «drinking, dancing, loving, shouting, singing“with them. In 1970 he organized his first exhibition there, displaying three hundred and fifty pictures with the help of pins on the walls, allowing those who realized themselves to remove the pictures from the wall and keep them for themselves as a memory of the experience. In the following years, Petersen begins to focus his attention on closed areas; The first book of this trilogy was published in 1984, Prison, devoted to his project inside a maximum security prison, in which he lives for a very long time. Posts of her work in the retirement home will follow, Raw love (1991), and a psychiatric hospital, Inger has seen everything (1995). The next task of Anders Petersenfrom the 2000s to today, it increasingly takes the form of a visual reality that takes different places of the world it explores: Okinawa, Valparaiso, Soho in London, Sète, Rome, Paris, Stockholm.

Peterson he is best known for his portraits of ordinary people, often immortals in urban or slum settings. His photographs are often detailed in black and white, and stand out thanks to the excellent use of light and framing; through these tools, he deals with the themes of life, death, love and loss: “My pictures are often characterized by a sense of loneliness and isolation, because I believe that these are universal feelings”.

Through the camera, he questions the meaning of life and tries to bring out the inner truth that every human being carries inside him and that often hides behind the mask that he shows to society and that, often, you don’t recognize. . Gifted with a deep empathy and curiosity for others, Petersen immerses himself deeply in their daily lives and is able to record their deep conflicts and tensions.

In one of his memorable shows of 2023, titled Anders Petersen. Naples for Spot Gallery of Via Toledo, Petersen, with sympathetic and innocent eyes, without discrimination and humor, immersed himself in the Neapolitan city, living its true daily life: people at work, on vacation, at parties, on the street, happy and sad. , young and old, strong and weak.

In almost sixty black and white photographs, of medium and large sizes, shown at the exhibition and taken by the Swedish artist in 2022 during a month of residence in the capital of Campania, a personal image emerged of Partenope with a thousand faces, angularity and. conflicts, but always overflowing with its proverbial vitality.

Naples of Anders Petersen it is a city with completely different blacks and whites, in perfect harmony with its nature. Petersen’s photographs speak of the city, of its people, but, at the same time, it is the expression of the author, whose photography represents an ongoing investigation within himself, an interrogation of the other to discover something more about himself. “I want to be as close as possible so that I can feel that whatever I take looks as personal as possible. I want my photos to be a part of me, I want to realize my dreams, my fears, my desires». This statement is emphasized even more strongly by the question that unites all mankind: «Who am I? The answer to this question is not very important, because the question itself is more interesting than any answer. I would like to know more about myself and others, about dreams, nightmares, wounds and memories that haunt us. Photography is a kind of philosophy that I can find in myself. It is not a religion, although it looks like one. Photography is about meeting people on a journey of self-understanding».

Petersen’s pictures are completely vertical, because, he says: «When you shoot vertically, you get closer to people».

To date, Petersen has published dozens of books, many of which have been milestones in the history of photography.
Among the many awards and recognitions received, there are: awards Photographer of the Yearai Meetings of Arles of 2003; special jury prize for exhibitions The Elevation of Humanity, at the Lianzhou International Photography Festival, China, in 2007; award Dr. Erich Salomon from German Photographic Society, in 2008; award for the best book of 2009, ai Rencontres d’Arles Book Awardwith JH Engström, trans From Homecoming. Moreover, Petersen received A picture of Paris andAperture Foundation Picture Book Award 2012, for City Diaryand awards Lennart of Petersen, 2019. Anders Petersen’s work is represented in the collections of major exhibition sites worldwide. Among these: Museum of Modern Art New York, Hasselblad Center Gothenburg, National Library of France Paris, Center Pompidou Paris, Museum of Modern Art From Rome, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, A modern museum Stockholm, European House of Photography Paris, Folkwang Museum Essen e Winterthur Photo Museum. Since 1969 he has been doing solo and group shows all over the world.

«I love photographing ordinary people, because they are what make the world an interesting place». With his pictures, Anders Petersen it gives dignity and human depth to those people who usually receive only contempt and indifference, especially from those who do not experience the same difficulty of existence and do not have the gift of identifying with stories and situations that are often final.
Teresa Lanna

References
Anders Petersen’s official website
Copyright
All images © Anders Petersen
Featured image: © Anders Petersen, Napoli 2022 (detail)

Pictures from the exhibition
ANDERS PETSEN. NAPLES”
Saturday 21 October 2023 – Wednesday 31 January 2024
SPORTS AT HOME AT HOME
via Toledo, 66, 80134 Naples
081 9228816; spothomegallery.com