Jane 
Anders Petersen, b. 1944, is a Swedish photographer, who is best known for his intimate and documentary-based photography projects. He is best known for his project, “Café Lehmitz” in which he photographed prostitutes, transvestites, lovers, drunkards, and drug addicts from 1967-1970. The photographs are very close and personal, and incredibly humanistic and soulful.
I was honored to meet Anders when I taught my street photography workshop at Fotografiska (he taught a workshop at the same time). People I knew who met him described him as very intense and hardcore- and I was a bit nervous meeting him. However upon meeting him, he was an incredibly loving, caring, and down-to-earth-guy. He looked at my work and gave me great words of advice and inspiration.
Although Anders describes himself as a “private documentary photographer” – I love his thoughts, feelings, and philosophy that I feel many of us street photographers can learn from. If you are curious about learning more, read on!
1. Shoot with your heart, not your brain
One of the things I love most about Petersen is his obvious love of photography and the love of the people he is photographing. He also describes how he shoots:
“I am more using my heart and stomach and I go for that, it keeps me going. I don’t use the upper-half so much when I am shooting – it is more after when I am shooting when I am looking at my contact sheets, and then I try to analyze and put things together.”
