Johan Renck and Anders Petersen: The Left Shore
Filmmaker Johan Renck and photographer Anders Petersen join forces in The Left Shore, a powerful meeting between moving images and still photography. At the core of the exhibition is a film directed by Renck, inspired by a selection of Petersen’s photographs — spanning from his early book projects to his more recent, intimate, diary-like works.
Through Renck’s lens, Petersen’s raw and empathetic images take on new life and new meaning. The film is accompanied by an original score by Krister Linder, whose music deepens the emotional atmosphere of the piece. Alongside the film, visitors will encounter a selection of Petersen’s own photographs from his acclaimed trilogy on life within Swedish care institutions — prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and homes for the elderly — created during the 1980s and 1990s.
The exhibition and accompanying publication bring together two powerful visual storytellers: Renck has selected images from Petersen’s body of work spanning different periods, weaving them into a cinematic and photographic dialogue. The initiative was conceived by Angie Åström, who also serves as curator of the exhibition at the Nationalmuseum.
About the Author
For decades, Johan Renck has been an internationally acclaimed director, known for his strong visual storytelling and evocative sense of atmosphere. After first gaining recognition in the 1990s for music videos featuring artists such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé and Robbie Williams, Renck earned wide praise for his collaboration with David Bowie on the artist’s final two videos, Blackstar and Lazarus (2016). He made his feature debut with Downloading Nancy (2008) and most recently directed Spaceman (2024), starring Adam Sandler. Renck has also worked extensively in television, directing episodes of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. His acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl (2019), starring Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson, became a global success and earned numerous awards for its haunting portrayal of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
Anders Petersen is celebrated worldwide as one of the leading voices in contemporary photography. His career began in the late 1960s, when he captured the vibrant and fragile community of Hamburg’s Café Lehmitz — a work that became a cornerstone of European documentary photography. The photographs featured in The Left Shore are drawn from his trilogy of books exploring life in Swedish institutions: Fängelse (1984, text by Leif GW Persson), Rågång till kärleken (1991), and Ingen har sett allt (1995, texts by Göran Odbratt).
Throughout his life’s work, Petersen has pursued a profound sense of human closeness — guided by loyalty, empathy, and respect for the people he photographs. In The Left Shore, Renck’s cinematic interpretation becomes an extension of that same spirit: a dialogue between two artists who both seek to reveal the fragile beauty and resilience at the heart of human experience.
Johan Renck and Anders Petersen: The Left Shore
through 11 January 2026
Nationalmuseum – Stockholm – Sweden
