Born in 1944, Anders Petersen studied photography at Fotoskolan and later at the Institute for Cinema, Radio, Television and Theatre, both in Stockholm. In 1970 he founded the group of photographers Saftra together with Kenneth Gustavsson. Petersen is perhaps best known for his photos of the colorful, often unconventional, patrons of Café Lehmitz in Hamburg's St. Pauli, resulting in his seminal book Café Lehmitz (1978). He has published and exhibited his photography extensively and in 2014 was the subject of a retrospective at the Bibliothéque National de France in Paris, which is now touring in Europe.