“It was pretty much by chance that I learnt that Anders Petersen, the great Swedish photographer, had worked on the French cities of Gap and St-Étienne. The wonderful thing is that he’s kept the very characteristic feel of that first project on the Café Lehmitz in Hamburg, that remarkable example of social photography from the ’70s.”
Raymond Depardon
 
About Gap and Saint-Étienne
On show here are fifty photographs dating from two two-week residencies, initially at Les Transurbaines, the first City of St-Étienne Biennale, then at Gap for the national La Passerelle theatre festival.   “Anders Petersen’s vision of St-Étienne and Gap is revealed through his relationship with their residents. He photographed people. People he did not know, who are thus serendipitous subjects, come upon by chance in the city. Then, according to the feeling of the moment, these meetings gave rise to sharing and fellow-feeling, or to the expression of questionings and doubts. Sweden’s nights are longer than ours and Petersen, just as in his current work on solitude and privacy, reminds us of this as he scours the backstreets in search of the last bar still open, or rather the last drinker to photograph. The man is a monster of positive energy, each encounter bringing him unconcealed pleasure. There is a kind of urgency, of restlessness in the movement of his lens, a need to catch things that has nagged at him throughout his career. No limits, no restraint, just high contrast, intense situations and an eagle eye that brilliantly seizes on tiny moments of letting go, of pleasure, of near-despair in settings bearing the mark of time and sadness.”
Christian Caujolle, Artistic Director, VU’ l’Agence and Galerie.