“A POET OF THE SEEDY AND THE SUBVERSIVE”

PETERSEN, Anders. Gröna Lund Om Människor På Ett Nöjesfält. Helsingborg, Sweden: Aktuell Fotolitteratur, (1973). Quarto, original white laminated photographic boards. $3500.

First edition of Petersen’s scarce first photobook, signed by him on the title page, with over 120 photogravures by this leading Swedish photographer whose frank “diarist approach, frequently directed at the fringes of society”(Parr & Badger), first emerged in this landmark work.

Swedish photographer Anders Petersen first attracted international attention with this photo-essay on a Stockholm amusement park and later confirmed the acclaim with his photobook Café Lehmitz (1978). "Like Robert Frank, Petersen is drawn to those on life's margins, a poet of the seedy and the subversive… His images possess… what Petersen describes as 'a kind of poetical sadness" (Observer). In Gröna Lund, his outstanding inaugural work, Petersen early reveals that distinctive "diaristic approach, frequently directed at the fringes of society," which has become his trademark (Parr & Badger I:231). With text by Jan Stolpe. Issued without dust jacket. See Open Book, 318.

Images fine, very light edge-wear to boards. About-fine condition, scarce signed.