While Helmer Petersen is known as a pioneering color photographer, he also had a career as an architect and approached photography from that unique perspective. From the moment he picked up a camera, he sought to elevate photography to an art form by connecting it with architecture.
Through his dedication to combining architecture and photography, he discovered new ideas and forms of balance. It is in this harmony that opposites become one, generating the unexpected.
This collection expresses such harmony - through dualities, layered processing, and collaboration—exploring the interplay of both sides to reveal something entirely new.
Keld Helmer-Petersen – 122 Farvefotografier / 122 Colour Photographs The Harmony That Arises Between Things
Photography can sometimes reframe what we overlook, offering a fresh perspective on the familiar. The subtle outlines of architecture, casually placed everyday objects, the chance patterns formed by light and shadow - when these elements are framed through the lens, a harmony of form and color emerges, revealing unexpected beauty. 122 Farvefotografier is a work that captures this very sensation.
Helmer-Petersen began taking photographs with a Leica camera he received as a graduation gift. With a deep understanding of design and architecture, he became well-versed in the photography of interwar Germany, including that influenced by the Bauhaus.
In 1948, ten years after he first picked up a camera, his photobook was published in Denmark - a work that had a significant impact on postwar photographic expression. At a time when black-and-white photography was still dominant, his use of color film to uncover a unique sense of beauty within everyday scenes and industrial structures was revolutionary. His photographs avoid dramatic staging, instead reconstructing familiar motifs through pure color and balanced composition. It feels as though he saw the world before him as if painting - existing between art and design. For him, photography may have been an attempt to create a new visual language. In an era when photography had yet to be recognized as a form of fine art, his work presented a new kind of expression.
Just as Helmer-Petersen photographed the works of Poul Kjærholm - “architecture and photography,” “furniture and photography” - his process of reconstructing disparate disciplines through a new lens gave rise to entirely new kinds of beauty. Like photography finding order within the randomness of everyday life, clothing too exists in the space between intention and coincidence - revealing new expressions through the movements of the wearer and the passage of time.
Perhaps even in our everyday lives - in the landscapes we take for granted, in our human relationships and interactions - there exists this kind of “new harmony.” When such elements resonate, they may spark unexpected phenomena or creative outcomes. It doesn’t have to be perfect symmetry. Tension and rhythm are born precisely from slight imbalances. This applies equally to the creation of garments, accessories, bags, and shoes - and when these pieces resonate with the individuality of the wearer, a new kind of harmony emerges.
“New equilibrium” is not a fixed state, but a balance found within constant change. As times shift and values evolve, we aim to discover new balances within the ordinary - and to create things that remain in memory.
