Anders Petersen has been involved in Swedish photography since the late 60's. He is one of its central figures, and no one else has made a stronger impact on a younger generation. Yet, he hardly gives the impression of being a father figure. If anything, he is the eternal boy, travelling through an alien wonderland with its secret love encounters and bewildering adult conflicts. His pictures of the world out there somehow seem to be taken in a state of permanent amazement. ‘Is this what it looks like,’ he seems to utter as he points his camera at lovers in the night and at people in the street – or at inmates in Swedish prisons and patrons in a Hamburg bar …
One of the secrets in Anders Petersen's photography is his indication of a possible route of escape, a kind of alternative movement through the city, which could lead to a different story. A woman's gaze into the camera turns into an unsettling invitation, often of the forbidden kind. / Peder Alton, a Swedish art critic.
Fotografier/Photographs 1966-1996 is the first retrospective to cover his work as a whole. Though comprehensive in scope, it does not aim a totality – rather it is intended to be a visual flow, denoting a tone of voice, a line of development.
App. 140 b/w images • Text by Göran Odbratt and Gunnar Ekelöf • Interviews with A P for picture comments: Sören Gunnarsson • Translation to English: Boo Cassel; Ekelöf: Muriel Rukeyser, Leif Sjöberg • Editor: Gösta Flemming • Layout: Tina Enghoff, Gösta Flemming, Anders Petersen • Design: Tina Enghoff • Softcover with flaps • 230 x 270 mm • 200 pages • Swedish/English • 1997
Shortlisted for the Swedish Photobook/Best Photobook Award 1997.
Diploma in Swedish Book Art 1997 at the National Library of Sweden.
