Anders Petersen – City Diary

In the spring and summer of 2024, the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg is presenting a solo exhibition of his work. The exhibition focuses on the series City Diary, which is shown for the first time on a larger scale. It is a visual diary of the artist’s travels around the world over the past five decades. Anders Petersen turns 80 this spring and the exhibition is a tribute to his work and great impact on Swedish photography.

Anders Petersen’s interest in people has been present throughout his oeuvre. They are often on the margins of society, from the early work on the patrons Café Lehmitz in Hamburg’s harbor from the late 1960s and the trilogy about closed institutions in Sweden from the 1980s, to today’s depictions of people on the fringes of urban environments. Central to his work are the encounters with those portrayed, where trust in him as a photographer is decisive. He describes his method as an exercise in daring to be weak enough – not strong – and thus more open to being close to another person. The black and white and intense photographs depict life with all its contrasts – the raw with the tender. Many of the photographs in the exhibition focus on close portrayals of the body – bare skin, tattoos, wounds, and feet in stiletto heels, but also classic portraits of people with a strong personal character. This combines observations of phenomena and details in the urban space: cars, still lifes, animals, bars, and architecture. The people in Anders Petersen’s photographs party, make love, dance, or rest and simply exist.

Biography

Anders Petersen was born in 1944 in Stockholm. He studied at Christer Strömholm’s Photography School in 1966–68 and at the then Film School, Swedish Institute of Dramatic Art, in 1974. His first book, Gröna Lund – om människor på ett nöjesfält was published in 1973, followed by the now iconic publication Café Lehmitz, in 1978. The first three volumes in the series City Diary were published in 2012. Four volumes remain to be published by Steidl.