Pétur Thomsen & Pétur Thomsen

THOMSEN & THOMSEN

15.May– 29.August 2010

Thomsen & Thomsen is an exhibition of portrait photographs and views from the Reykjavík area, from two different times and by two photographers: Pétur Thomsen senior (1910-88) and his grandson, Pétur Thomsen junior (b.1973). The exhibition is a dialogue between two eras – a dialogue between the two Péturs. Pétur junior has selected portraits and urban scenes from his grandfather’s archive, which are juxtaposed with his own photographs. The work of Thomsen senior dates from before 1973. He was active at the time when Reykjavík was developing into a town and then a city, with a boom-town ambiance. The exhibition provides an insight into family life in the 1950s and 60s, and then again in 2008-10 through the eyes of Pétur junior: a period of change, during which attitudes to the manmade in the landscape have reflected a certain tension, and boom and bust in society have made their mark on the population.

It is safe to say that Pétur Thomsen senior was a rather unusual grandad, who had lived through eventful times. He left Iceland in 1935, and in 1940 he started his training as a photographer, in Germany; drafted into the German army, he became a photographer to the high command. He ultimately returned to Iceland aboard a German U-boat, after which he was sent to England by the British occupying forces, and spent three months in internment. After his release, he began his career as a photographer in Iceland. Much of his work was in industrial photography, while he also worked extensively for the presidential office and the government. He is probably best known for being appointed an official photographer to the royal court of Sweden by King Gustav VI Adolf. The year 2010 is the centenary of Pétur senior’s birth. His photographs are preserved in the collection of the Reykjavík Museum of Photography.

Pétur Thomsen junior’s photographs have been taken in the Reykjavík area during the first decade of the 21st century; thus up to sixty years separate his images from those of his grandfather. Pétur attracted attention in the photographic world in 2004 when he won the LVMH – Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy – Young Artist Award. A year later he was one of the photographers featured in the exhibition ReGeneration, 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, which was shown initially in Switzerland before travelling to the USA, China and other countries. He made an international impression with his Imported Landscapes series, taken during the construction of a highly-controversial hydro-dam at Kárahnjúkar in the Icelandic interior, built to power a new aluminium smelter on the east coast. Following on from that theme, he has continued to focus on the mutability of landscape, and man’s impact upon his environment.

Further infos about Pétur Thomsen on www.peturthomsen.is

The exhibition is on the programme of the Reykjavík Arts Festival 2010