Tzenkoff

Image Keld Helmer-Petersen, Copenhagen 1953. Graphic Design Remi Paringaux.

The purity and serenity found in the 20th century work of 88 year-old Danish photographer, Keld Helmer Petersen, looks as modern today as it did back in the 1940s, when he first began taking pictures of seemingly ordinary subject matter in his native country. His images would variously home in on, for example, the painted slats of a simple wooden fence, or a fire hydrant and doorknob. Others might contrast the flat surface of plain concrete with that of intricate pale brick work. He would capture and quietly celebrate the strange beauty of these objects and spaces which, by most people, were hitherto simply ignored.

Largely self-taught, his work – both in black and white and colour formats – understandably attracted the attention of Life magazine’s Editor Wilson Hicks – who began offering him regular assignments – after Helmer-Petersen published a book of his own work in 1948, with the wonderfully literal title, 122 Colour Photographs.

Moving back to Denmark in the early 1950s, Helmer-Petersen would become firmly associated with the ground-breaking aesthetics of modernist Danish design and architecture. Increasingly established as an artist in his own right, Helmer-Petersen was embraced by, and became firm friends with, a then-unknown young Danish furniture designer, Poul Kjaerhlom. At the photographer’s request, Kjaerholm designed a suitably stark exhibition space for him; such was the harmonious nature of their creative outlooks that Helmer-Petersen would thereafter regularly shoot the catalogues of all of Kjaerholm’s latest furniture designs – in his own distinctive way – for many years to come.

An appreciation of Helmer-Petersen’s archive, and his contribution to photography as a serious artistic medium in its own right, continues to grow.

Hence, Tzenkoff felt that connecting the Danish fashion brand Annhagen to the work of Helmer-Petersen – by utilising some of his less well-known images within their new website and upon their show invitations – would work most successfully. After all, both parties believe in the power of the uncompromised vision and the ability to define beauty and elegance in new and unexpected ways.