PRESS PACK

Contents

Press release 3

Practical information 4

Visuals 5

Presentation 7

The author and his work 8

The lay out of the exhibition 13

Plan of the exhibition 15

Publication 16
 | Richelieu
13 november 2013 - 2 february 2014
PRESS RELEASE

Anders Petersen
[Photographs]
For the first time ever in Paris, a big monographic exhibition is devoted to Anders Petersen
at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The 330 photographs on display are not meant
to be seen as a retrospective exhibition but a splendid searing journey through the work
built up by the famous Swedish photographer during half a century. From the closed world
of his debut to an opening up to the world, both a personal journey and the strength of an
intuitive and sensual style are revealed to visitors.

In June 1974, in the wake of an acquisition, a generous donation brought 25 prints from the
Café Lehmitz series to the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the first and famous series
of photographs made by the young Anders Petersen. Since then, his highly personal world,
already present in those pictures, has unfolded itself and expanded. Petersen has asserted his
artistic approach.
“We have the privilege to present in the Mansart gallery of the BnF the works of a photographer
whose talent is now worldwide acknowledged and celebrated”, says Bruno Racine, President of
the BnF.
Petersen studied photography under Christer Strömholm. They share a similar vision of the
world and the use of a vibrant, dynamic and sensitive photography in black and white close to
snapshots. Neither roughness nor voyeurism nor complacency are allowed to taint the nature
of the photographer’s encounters or his absolute sincerity towards others. The flesh of human
beings and animals encountered during Petersen’s travels emerges as a flood of world objects
in all their beauty and peculiarity. These street scenes, portraits and details of everyday life,
insignificant or extravagant, are emphasized through an almost heretical framing practice.

Exhibition produced jointly with VU’ la galerie and Fotografiska

in partnership with Obsession

3
Anders Petersen
[Photographs]

Dates 13 november 2013 - 2 february 2014

Venue BnF I Richelieu

5 rue Vivienne - Paris 2
Métro : Bourse, Palais Royal, Pyramides
Bus : 20, 21, 27, 85, 74, 39

Open Tuesdays to Saturdays 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

Sundays 12 a.m.-7 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and bank holidays
Admission: €7, concession: €5
Bookings FNAC,
tel: 0892 684 694 (0.34 euros TTC/mn), www.fnac.com

Curator Anne Biroleau, general curator, Prints and Photographs Department, BnF

Coordination Joel Cramesnil, exhibition manager, BnF

Exhibition design Martin Michel

Graphics : André Frère

Guided tours Information and bookings at 01 53 79 49 49

Publication Anders Petersen

Co-publication BnF / Max Ström
20 × 29,5 cm, 400 pages, 350 photographs black and white
with texts from Anne Biroleau, Hasse Persson and Urs Stahel
Price : 49 euros

Press contacts Claudine Hermabessière

Head of the press department and media partnerships
01 53 79 41 18 - claudine.hermabessiere@bnf.fr

Hélène Crenon
Press officer
01 53 79 46 76 - helene.crenon@bnf.fr

4
 Visuals
Visuals available for promotional purposes throughout the duration of the exhibition.
All retouching and reframing prohibited.

Anders Petersen. Café Lehmitz. 1970 Anders Petersen. Karlstad, Suède. 2000
© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’ © Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie BnF, Estampes et photographie

Anders Petersen. Close Distance. 2002 Anders Petersen. Café Lehmitz. 1970
© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’ © Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie BnF, Estampes et photographie

Anders Petersen. Close Distance. 2002

© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie

5
Anders Petersen. Paris. 2006 Stockholm, 2000
© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’ © Anders Petersen, Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie BnF, Estampes et photographie

Anders Petersen. From Back Home. 2009 Anders Petersen. Soho. 2011
© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’ © Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie BnF, Estampes et photographie

Anders Petersen. Close Distance. 2002

© Anders Petersen. Courtesy Galerie VU’
BnF, Estampes et photographie

6
 Présentation

The exhibition, devoted to the works of Anders Petersen, that the Bibliothèque nationale de
France is organising will be displaying works spanning the whole of the photographer’s career.
Without wishing to give it the orthodox description of being a “ retrospective”, the exhibition
is about drawing attention to the “red line“, the common theme running through the diferent
phases of his work. More than 300 photographs will be on show along with prints from the Café
Lehmitz (1970) period up to the very recent Soho (2011) and Roma (2012) series.
One series does not follow on from another in the way that the chapters of a book or the
articles in an encyclopaedia do. On the other hand the themes do echo one another and the
plastic vocabulary – even if it has changed considerably between Café Lehmitz and the recent
images – remains consistent and easily recognisable, which makes the bias of a presentation
which is non-chronological, extremely visible.
The suggested theme of the exhibition is about conveying the vibrancy, the dynamism and the
emotion which characterise the vision of the world of Anders Petersen, and about making the
universe effect that the whole work produces, perceptible, as well as recounting the invention
and changes occurring to a written document .
Although Petersen used a traditional film camera to take his photos, the proofs on display
are to be found next to silver salt proofs, including period prints and large sized digital prints.
Moreover, more digital printing suits Petersen’s recent works perfectly because of the huge
number of copies that can be produced.
The Print and photography department of the Library acquired twenty five proofs from the
Café Lehmitz series in June 1974.

The photographs on show during this exhibition all belong to the author’s collection.

7
 The author and his work

The author

A photographer of intimate epic poetry

“I never stop asking questions, in particular about myself. That might seem selfish and it
probably is. I wonder who and why I am. Then I’m looking for people, other beings with whom
I can identify – women, men, dogs, cats… I think what it’s all about is identifying with people
who are like me […] I’m the sort of photographer who loves company, friends, contact […]
I’m not interested in causing separation, I want to be close.1”

Anders Petersen, who was born in 1944 in Solna (Sweden), has been taking photographs for
more than 40 years. When he was 18, and still an adolescent, he interrupted his rather traditio-
nal education and went abroad. It was in Hamburg that he ended up, a port city teaming with
bars and cafés full of different people from all sorts of backgrounds. He spent three months
there making friends with workers, prostitutes, pimps, transvestites, the low-life, basically all
the characters from the night life and the alternative culture of the time. For him the café
Lehmitz became his second family and, the more evenings he spent there, the more he became
just like one of the locals: “It was there that I discovered so many peculiarities, things and
customs that one just wouldn’t find anywhere else. It was there too, I fell in love with Vanja,
a prostitute who was only a year younger than me. I wasn’t exactly an altar boy but an adolescent
living alone in Hamburg. We were part of a gang and I’m sure people thought that we were just a
bunch of kids from various parts of the world. I hung out with Vanja for at least six months, and I
learnt quite a lot about what it means to be an underprivileged kid, to be vulnerable and to have to
struggle so hard to survive without forsaking what you believe in. It was an en experience which
more than any other was the making of me 2.”
This account sums up the impression that Petersen has of the world: generous and cruel. It was
here in this very same place that, later on, Petersen would take his first photographs. The Café
Lehmitz series would win him instant recognition.

1.http://fkmagazine.lv/2012/01/30
2. Get the Hell out (of) here by Elin Unnes http://www.vice.com/read/get-the-hell-out-of-there

8
Influences

There was a one meeting that was to prove decisive in Petersen’s development and in the
choices he would make. When he returned to Stockholm, he met Christer Strömholm (1918-
2002), the greatest Swedish photographer of the time, who noticed his work. Petersen had
long since known about Strömholm’s photographs and felt particularly affected by one of them
which had been taken in Paris (Cemetery in the snow). In fact one of his own photographs is
clearly a tribute to this picture.
It’s obvious, when one compares their works, that they share a similar feeling about the world
and an identical aesthetic form: basically that of a black and white photograph which has the
sharpness and intensity of a snapshot. But also a respect and concern for the other one,
the Other one in the philosophical sense. The respect, the absolute sincerity, the quality of
the encounter, are essential when it’s a portrait, which is another striking theme that the two
photographers share.
Between 1966 and 1968, Petersen was Strömholm’s student at the Stockholm University,
school of photography where in fact many students were taught by Strömholm.
In 1967 whilst still studying, he and Kenneth Gustavsson founded the Saftra photographic
group which, during the 1970s, produced articles which were socially committed and critical
of society.
At the end of this training period Petersen returned to Hamburg, where on a number of occa-
sions he photographed the Café Lehmitz with its decor and its locals. It was also where in 1970,
he put on an exhibition of 350 photographs which had been taken at the same locations, and
gave the prints for free to the models. The photobook called Café Lehmitz came out in 1978,
after the series was exhibited in Arles in 1977. The photobook was to become Petersen’s semi-
nal work. It quickly sold out and became a collector’s item although it was reprinted several
times. However, it wasn’t the photographer’s first photobook because Gröna Lund, which was
all about the people using a leisure park, was published in 1973.
It was during this period when the direction and vocation of the photographer really came to
the fore turning him in to a Europe-wide and then worldwide name.
Ever since he’s been constantly and subtly changing his style, but without deserting the content
and style of approach of his first photographs, nor their attachment to intimacy and personal
emotion. It’s not to any “school“ that Petersen belongs but rather to a trend, a category which
also includes the works of Ed van der Elsken, Daido Moriyama, Robert Frank...

After Café Lehmitz

It should be pointed out that Petersen wasn’t afraid of difficult subjects which were quite close
to themes from the world of documentary photography, subjects requiring a total mental
openness and a deep interest in closed or even forbidden environments.
In keeping with this he produced his series Fängelse (1981-1983) in a high security prison, then
Rågång till kärleken (1991) which was a study of the occupants of a retirement home, before
working on Ingen har sett allt / Mental Hospital (1995) which was the result of a very trying
project within a psychiatric hospital.
Whilst working on these projects which specifically focussed on a precise subject, he carried
on working on with his day to day work, with his travel diary, and photographic diary which
resulted in several photobooks: Close distance ( 2002), Du mich auch (2002), City Diary (2012).
From back home published in 2009 – which is a photobook on various subjects – compares his
work with that of the Swede H.J. Engström whom he taught.

9
Each time Petersen was invited to take up residence, whether in Sète, Rome or London he
would always relay his vision and his perception of the places and the people moving around
in them through the photobooks that he published. City Diary, which was the last one to be
published, in 2012 by Editions Steidl, mixes or summarises, depending on the point of view
that one adopts, both his personal life, his relationship with others and his approach to social
reality, whether it be painful or joyful. This photobook won the Paris-Photo Aperture Foundation
photobook prize in 2012. For Petersen, one of the crowning moments of his photographic work
is to be found in the photobook as it shows how photographs can come in many forms all of
which are legitimate in his eyes.

The influence of Anders Petersen

Petersen has a very heavy workload which is taken up by teaching, reading portfolios and
workshops. He has had a strong and lasting influence on young photographers who, like An-
toine d’Agata, have understood his contribution without resorting to flatly imitating him. The
world of Petersen is to be “shared “ but certainly not to be imitated for he is unique.
Although the documentary aspect is his base, especially when he offers his vision of a world
which is usually beyond that which our eyes can see (prison, psychiatric hospital..), the power-
ful and personal way in which the photographer achieves total immersion allows him a free-
dom of expression which is quite removed from that found in a pure sociological document.
Likewise his profoundly emphatic approach dispels the criteria of moral judgement.
Petersen is a subjective documentary photographer. Throughout his work he has developed a
type of approach in which the observer himself is truly part of the observation, and plays a role
in every aspect of the portrayal of the world that he is presenting to us.

10
The work: themes, aesthetics, technical choices

The intimate documentary

Christian Caujolle, who is a great connoisseur of the work of Petersen, writes the following
about him: “He always records, never makes a judgment, but is forever questioning our blindness
with regard to the norm. He has to, and he knows how to do so in a unique way, go beyond the
surface of things to tap into the emotion and the meaning of these little bits and pieces that Ker-
tész would cultivate and that the evidence would always hide. To do this, he has to find the right
distance, which is the most difficult thing. That was how he would sum up the central issue of his
approach: “For the photo to be a good one, you always have to have one foot inside and one foot
outside. The problem I have is that I always end up with two feet inside! […] 3 “
You would have realised from reading this analysis, the work of Petersen is totally tied in with
his personal opinions and his sensitivity, the very private side of his life and his journey and
relationships that he has developed with living beings.
“I think that documentary photography is very important. And I must say that my roots are in
documentary photography. I love Ed van der Elsken, Christer Strömholm, etc. But now my home
is rather with intimate documentaries. It’s a type of test. Of course it’s rather more about me. I
want to make clear that it’s my personal vision and that a totally objective truth does not exist.
Everything is subjective, and that’s what I mean by the expression “intimate documentary”
declares the photographer. 4

The aesthetic side of Petersen is similar to that of street photography illustrated amongst
other things by the great Americans such as Walker Evans, Gary Winogrand, and by the realist
approach of Strömholm. He chose to work in black and white, “because with black and white
you’re not trapped by colours “, he says. He uses a plastic vocabulary and a photographic
syntax which have been designed in the spirit of the snapshot. A snapshot with the skill of a
virtuoso.
“I use my heart and my guts, which is how I keep going and that’s what encourages me even
more. I don’t so much use my “ my head ” when I’m taking photos – that comes afterwards, when
I’m looking at my contact sheets, that’s when I try to analyse things and introduce some order. “
All the pictures from Petersen offer this urgent obviousness and speed of decision, which none
the less do not get in the way of absolute precision. The setting is razor sharp, the subject is
closely defined, picked out and drawn by sources of light which are sometimes disconcerting,
the space is chaotic, and disrupted but right. Basically it’s a work which focusses on life, the
daily routine, its comings and goings and its accidents, its eccentricities and its details.
Thanks to the layouts which are mobile, free, and variable depending on the photobooks and
exhibitions, these images present us with a sudden appearance of the flesh from people and
animals encountered whilst travelling, an emergence of the material world, its beauties and
its ugly aspects. It’s an appreciation of the denseness of mystery and silence of reality, of its
relationship with experience and desire, and not a compliance with an idealised and unreal
portrayal which underlies the vision of the photographer.

3. In Anders Petersen, introduction. by Christian Caujolle, Photo Poche/ Actes Sud, 2004
4. http://erickimphotography.com

11
“I don’t want to put a name to my style. I don’t think that I’ve got a special style but on the
other hand I certainly do have a special approach. I love people. You can see a common theme
between my first photos and what I do now […] however it’s not so much a case of anecdotes
and atmospheres, but rather of light and shade. What I’m interested in is a clear, sharp attack
which doesn’t explain anything, doesn’t offer any answers but poses questions. And the more
questions and desires I find in the setting the better the result is. It’s very rewarding to be curious
and patient. You can open the door but the key to do so is the camera. I’m not disposed to intel-
lectual photography or photography based on an idea, even if we always do need an idea, a basis
on which to build .5 “

The technical choice is one based on shots taken using film, but although the original proofs
are the silver salt prints, Petersen doesn’t refuse the use of digital techniques either for his
recent works or for the reworking of his older works.

“I prefer to photograph with a camera which uses film 6 because being a little stupid, naïve, and
lazy I prefer to stay with what I’m familiar with. And I want a camera which is very simple. An
amateur’s camera. The only thing that matters for me is to be in contact with people and to be
genuine with them and with myself. The camera isn’t so important. It’s only a tool. It doesn’t
matter what type of camera you use for street photography (…it can be an IPhone), as long as
you feel at ease with the settings and you don’t need to think during the shot. […] One is not
supposed to be a slave to mechanics and techniques, which should only be there to help us and
should remain as unimportant as possible so as not to hinder the contact process. That’s what I
feel when I’m working.7 “

5. 7 http://erickimphotography.com.
6. A Contax

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 The lay out of the exhibition

A universe effect

The circuit starts with two recent series, Roma (2012) and Reggio Emilia (2012) and closes
with the seminal series Café Lehmitz. For this exhibition, Petersen has retrieved his contact
sheets and printed some photos which have never been seen before. It will be a chance then
to discover some new aspects to this well-known series and to understand what changes in his
current work have inspired his new choices. But also a chance to measure the permanence and
intensification of a style which from the beginning corresponded to a personal search based on
human contact and the freedom of the gaze.
It’s a flowing, non-linear and non-restrictive circuit, interrupted only by window cabinets dis-
playing photobooks and contact sheets, which allows one to come and go as one pleases.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to appreciate the complexity of Petersen’s work, and
explore the different variations that the world of photography offers through its multiple facets.
Because the circuit is so flowing, visitors will be able to form their own free and individual idea
of the world of Petersen.

Photographs

Petersen deconstructs and recomposes his series as and when he stages his exhibitions all
over the world. One of his favourite types of presentation is the close juxtaposition – close to
the depiction of a contact sheet – whether it be a tapestry effect (images presented from top
to bottom of the wall) or cloud effect (constellation of concentrated and dispersed images over
the entire surface of the wall).
Accounts and stories appear and disappear in tune with the visitor’s gaze and the dialogue
between shapes. One image seems to nod towards another which in turn sends one’s gaze
toward an older or more recent series. This is how the spectator can during the visit to the exhi-
bition move freely in the world of Anders Petersen. The isolated images which are interspersed
in the exhibition enclosure are taken from various series and sum up what it is all about. The
aim of the exhibition is to make the style and work of Petersen perceptible by bringing together
photographs spanning the duration of his career.

The series on display

Café Lehmitz (1967 - 1970) and, for the first time a second set of fifteen or so hitherto unseen
works from this series : Barbara and Gertrud, Du mich auch (1967-1970), Gröna Lund (1973),
Mental Hospital/Fängelse/Äldre Omsorg (1984-1994),
From Back Home (2009), Soho (2011),
City Diary (2012), Roma (2012)
A certain number of legendary images created during the photographer’s career also provide a
rhythm to the stages of the visit.

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Photobooks

Petersen sees photography as an extremely flexible medium, which can be interpreted in

various formats and in various forms. From the start of his career it was his plan to display
his photographs in the form of photobooks which received many awards. For example he was
awarded the Paris-Photo/Aperture prize in 2012, for his series entitled “City Diary “.
A part of the twenty or so photobooks which he created will be on display at the exhibition,
revealing in harmony with the prints and a set of contact sheets, the focus that Petersen gives
to his own work, his different ways of arranging his images and interpreting them. One also
notes his policy of not featuring legends opposite the images.

Audio-visual

A film produced by J.H. Engström, a student and friend of Anders Petersen, shows the photo-
grapher at work.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Around the exhibition

Exhibition
2 x Paris : JH Engström et CHR Strömholm
At the Swedish Institute
11 rue Payenne, 75003 Paris
15.11.2013 – 12.01.2014

Certain photographers manage to capture the special atmospheres of Paris and to share their
individual experiences of the French capital so as to make them universal.
Christer Strömholm (1918-2002) and JH Engström (1969-) are two such people. In two twin
exhibitions held at the Swedish Institute, they each provide a very personal image of Paris:
portraits of friends and artists from the beginning of the 1960s from Christer Strömholm and
a non-chronological and very intimate diary from JH Engström. The parallel with the exhibition
of their friend and colleague Anders Petersen at the BnF highlights what these three great
Swedish photographers have in common: their attitude vis-à-vis the subject being photo-
graphed as well as their own role as photographer, always engaged and personally involved.
A case of humanist photography reinvented.

14
 15
Plan of the exhibition

City Diary Soho Close Distance From Back Home Café Lehmitz vintage

e
m
Soho

Ho

Gertrud
Barbara
So

Single
ck
ho Singles

Ci
Aldre
Regio Émilia

ho
So

Ba
ty
e Omsorg
ëls

m
ia
ng Gröna Lund

Fro
Fa

ry
Roma 2012 City Diary Mental Hospital Singles Du Mich Auch Café Lehmitz vintage
 Publication

Anders Petersen
Co-publication BnF / Max Ström
20 × 29,5 cm, 400 pages, 350 photographs black and white
with texts from Anne Biroleau, Hasse Persson and Urs Stahel
Price : 49 euros

Anders Petersen, who was born in 1944 in Solna shares with another great Swedish
photographer, Christer Strömholm, whom he admired and was a student of, a similar approach
to the world and an identical aesthetic form that of black and white photography which has the
sharpness and intensity of a snapshot but also a regard and concern for other people, which
are fundamental in the case of a portrait, which is another major theme which the two photo-
graphers share.
This work which contains more than 300 photographs from the artist, from Café Lehmitz to
the recent series Roma (2012) and Reggio Emilia (2012), typifies the universal effect that the
work of Anders Petersen brings about, as well as the invention of a changing document which
is profoundly intuitive and sensual.
The whole of it highlights the common theme running through the different periods of the work
of Petersen and makes it possible to appreciate the permanence and intensification of a style
which from the beginning was the reaction to a personal search based on human contact and
the freedom of the gaze.

16