Anders Petersen (born May 3, 1944) is a Swedish photographer, based in Stockholm. He makes intimate and personal documentary-style black and white photographs. Petersen has published more than 20 books. He has had exhibitions at Bibliothèque nationale de France, Liljevalchs konsthall, MARTa Herford, and Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Biography

Petersen studied photography under Christer Strömholm in Sweden from 1966 to 1967. He is noted for his intimate and personal documentary-style black-and-white photographs. For three years beginning in 1967 he photographed the late-night regulars (prostitutes, transvestites, drunks, lovers and drug addicts) in Café Lehmitz, a bar in Hamburg, Germany. The resulting photobook was first published in 1978 by Schirmer/Mosel in Germany. Café Lehmitz has since become regarded as a seminal book in the history of European photography. One of the photographs from this series was used as the cover art for Tom Waits' album Rain Dogs. Petersen's first book Gröna Lund (Green Grove), which was published in 1973, is set in the amusement park of Gröna Lund situated on an island in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1970 Petersen co-founded SAFTRA, the Stockholm group of photographers, with Kenneth Gustavsson. At the same time, he taught at Christer Strömholm's school. He has been director of the Göteborg School of Photography and Film. He began to photograph for magazines, and continued his personal photo diary work, which continues to this day. He has photographed for extensive periods of time in prisons, mental asylums, and elderly care homes.

Publications

Exhibitions

Awards

Collections

Petersen's work is held in the following permanent collections: