Anders Petersen – Grona Lund

video courtesy of PhotoBookStore.co.uk

Artist: Anders Petersen
Title: Grona Lund
Publisher: Aman Iman
Year: 2013
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Originally published in 1973, Grona Lund was Anders Petersen’s first book. Now reissued it offers an interesting second look as to where it all began for the Swedish photographer. Similar to the now iconic Cafe Lehmitz series Grona Lund focusses on another construct of leisure, one of Sweden’s oldest amusement parks found on an island close to Stockholm.

The work displays many of the hallmark signs of Petersen’s work: people young and old, bodies tangled in embrace, dancing couples and solitary figures; joy, sadness, camaraderie; evenings of stolen moments and dashed hopes – all framed by the often present sense of longing. Returning to the work now, some forty years later, the re-publication of Grona Lund certainly goes some way to confirming Petersen as one of today’s photographic masters, highlighting the extraordinary grip he holds over his subjects.