Napoli by Anders Petersen

Anders Petersen, the Swedish master of photography, inaugurates the first artist residency by Spot home gallery. The idea stems from the desire to support the creation of an artistic production in Napoli capable of sparking emotions and reflection, developing new perspectives and an imagery of the city that goes beyond commonplaces and clichés.

In this sense, Anders Petersen was only fitting to be the first artist in residence. Throughout his long career, Petersen has photographed in cities across almost every continent, from Tokyo to London, from Valparaiso to Stockholm, driven by an inexhaustible curiosity and a profound interest for the other. For him, photography serves as a means to explore the complexity of the human experience, to capture with sensitivity and honesty the emotions that define and unite us as living beings, part of the one, big, same family.

Napoli, a “city-world” of many thousand facets, with its chaos and its diverse humanity, was the ideal place for a photographer like him: it is precisely in chaos that life unfolds with all its unpredictability, vibrancy, and beauty.

They had never met before, but when it happened, it was love at first sight. Anders was struck by the city’s energy and enthusiastically accepted the not-so-easy challenge of photographing it. Napoli revealed itself without filters, without fear of showing its wounds and vulnerabilities, open to the empathetic approach of a photographer who can look beyond the surface of things, who can find beauty in the ordinary, and embrace its imperfections.

The gaze that Anders Petersen rests on Napoli and its humanity, bringing out its most carnal, sensual, primitive side, is an innocent gaze, free from the weight of prejudices and stereotypes. “It is what it is,” the Swedish master often repeats like a mantra, eluding any attempt at interpreting his photographs.

Napoli, too, “is what it is,” and we love it for what it is, with its flaws and contradictions



Anders Petersen
Anders Petersen (Stockholm, 1944) is one of the most influential contemporary photographers noted for his intimate and personal documentary-style black-and-white pictures. He had his international breakthrough in 1978 with Café Lehmitz one of the most revered photo books of all time, capturing life in a Hamburg dive bar in the late 1960s. Cafe Lehmitz became part of pop culture when Tom Waits used one picture as the cover of his 1985 album Rain Dogs. Up to now he has published more than 40 books, many of which have become an important part of photographic history. Among Petersen’s many prizes and awards can be mentioned: The Arles Photographer of the Year Award, 2003; the Jury’s Special Prize for the exhibition Exaltation of Humanity at the international photography festival in Lianzhou, China, 2007; the Dr. Erich Salomon Award of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, 2008; The Arles Contemporary Book Award together with JH Engström for From Back Home, 2009. Furthermore, Petersen received Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation Photo Book of the Year Award, 2012, for City Diary, and Lennart af Petersen’s prize, 2019. Anders Petersen’s work is represented in the collections of Fotografiska Stockholm, The Museum of Modern Art New York, Hasselblad Center Göteborg, The Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris, Centre Pompidou Paris, Museo di Arte Contemporanea Roma, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris, Museum Folkwang Essen, and Fotomuseum Winterthur, among others. He’s had both solo and group exhibitions regularly around the world since 1969.
www.anderspetersen.se
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