Without longing no image - a portrait of photographer Anders Petersen (2019)

Anders Petersen is one of Europe's most important photographers. His personal images and method of working have made him one of the great photographic storytellers of our time. Without longing, no Image is a documentation of the artistic process of Petersen's work "Stockholm" which occupied the last four years of his artistic career. When the project premiered in May 2019 at Liljevalchs Artcenter in Stockholm it was advertised as the largest solo exhibition by a Swedish photographer to this day. The movie allows the viewer to go along with Petersen in his dedicated work with the project. In personal scenes, we come close to him portraying people and situations in Stockholm. We get to see Petersen meet the city's residents in their homes and out on the streets. We are invited to examine the photographer's personal and special way of working, the way in which his great interest in people and his desire for connection gives him an entrance to intimate encounters. The viewer gets insight into an art practice that over the years received new frameworks but where the content still revolve around a desire to find a mirror, asking the same basic question, who am I, and why? The friend and colleague, photographer and filmmaker Stefan Bladh got to know Petersen as an assistant in the early 2000s. Becoming friends they have, during periods of time, shared a darkroom. Through the last year of intense labor concerning the "Stockholm" project, Bladh documented Petersen's endeavors, drawing an atmospheric and unique portrait of the photographer's life and work.