In Hamburg's red-light district, Café Lehmitz was a meeting place for sex workers, pimps, cross-dressers, thugs and criminals. Anders Petersen (born Stockholm, 1944) was eighteen when he arrived in Hamburg and discovered the café almost by chance. There he formed friendships that would leave a lasting mark. Returning in 1968, he met new regulars, made connections and began taking photographs. First published in 1978, these images have since become classics of their genre.
 

Unsettling in their candour and authenticity, free of voyeurism or false pity, Petersen's images evoke Brassaï's gaze. Café Lehmitz no longer exists, but this different world, this supposedly antisocial environment, reveals its cohesion and dignity here.
 

In 2008, Anders Petersen received the Dr Erich Salomon Award, recognising outstanding use of photography in the press. He lives and works in Stockholm.