Vinca Petersen (born c. 1973)[1][2] is a British photographer and artist, living on the Isle of Skye.[3] Her photography book No System documents her life in the 1990s, travelling around Europe with sound systems, putting on free parties. Petersen's work has been shown in group exhibitions at Tate Modern, Turner Contemporary and Saatchi Gallery, and is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum,[4] National Portrait Gallery, London[5] and Arts Council Collection.[6]
Life and work
editPetersen was born in Seoul, South Korea.[1] She lived in Romania and Sweden and then moved to the UK with her family at age six.[1] She started taking photographs at about age 7.[7] In 1989 she left home, aged seventeen, and moved into a squat in London.[2][8] She worked as a model, appearing in i-D and The Face.[1]
In 1994 Petersen bought a campervan.[1] Between then and 2004, she travelled around Europe with various sound systems, putting on free parties.[1] She occasionally returned to London for modeling work.[1] While on the road she made diaristic photographs, encouraged by her friend the photographer Corinne Day.[1][2] Photographs from this period in the 1990s were collected in the book No System (1999).[2][7][9][10] The work is distinctive for its proximity to the subject; photography by people within the rave scene at the time was uncommon, with cameras discouraged due to the illegal nature of some activities.[8][11]
Drawing from her archive, Future Fantasy (2017) is a collection of photographs from Petersen's life aged 16 to 24 as well as flyers, love letters and other ephemera. It also includes photographs by Day of Petersen, and artwork by Ben Freeman (AKA Ben Ditto).[11][12][13]
Deuce and a Quarter (2018) documents a US road trip that Petersen made with Day, Rosemary Ferguson and Susie Babchick in 1999.[14] They drove a 1970s Buick Electra 225 from Houston to Austin, through the Texas Hill Country, down to the Mexican border and beyond.[15] The book's title is street lingo for the Electra 225.[15]
As of 2020[update] she lived in Ramsgate,[1] where she co-founded a social art charity, Future Youth Project (FYP).[16] As of 2022[update] she lived on the Isle of Skye.[3]
Publications
edit- No System. Göttingen: Steidl, 1999. Photographs, letters, diary entries and notes by Petersen. Edited by Michael Mack. ISBN 9783882436457.
- London: Mack, 2020. ISBN 978-1527265639.
- Future Fantasy. London: Ditto, 2017. Photographs, flyers, letters and other ephemera by Petersen, with photographic contributions by Corinne Day, and artwork by Ben Freeman.[11]
- Deuce and a Quarter. London: IDEA, 2018. Photographs by Petersen. Edition of 1000 copies.[14][18]
Group exhibitions
edit- Sweet Harmony: Rave | Today, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2019. Included Petersen's A Life of Subversive Joy.[2][7][19]
- Seaside Photographed, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2019[1]
- Diaristic Photography and the Photobook, Tate Modern, London, 2019[16]
Collections
editPetersen's work is held in the following permanent collection:
- Arts Council Collection, UK[6]
- National Portrait Gallery, London: 1 print (as of 30 December 2022)[5]
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 4 prints (as of September 2020)[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "A candid look at the '90s rave scene through the eyes of a female photographer". Vogue India. 6 July 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Dunn, Frankie (15 July 2019). "witness the unseen side of 90s rave culture". i-D. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b https://edelassanti.com/usr/library/documents/main/vinca-petersen-cv-2022.pdf
- ^ a b "Search the Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b "Vinca Petersen - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Announcing Our New Acquisitions 2021-22 - Arts Council Collection". artscouncilcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ a b c Hutton, Belle (14 May 2020). "The Story of Vinca Petersen's Cult (and Now Re-Published) Book, No System". AnOther. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b Garratt, Sheryl (8 September 2016). "Meet the photographer who chronicled the raves of '90s-era Europe". Aperture Foundation NY. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ Adams, Tim (26 July 2020). "The big picture: a pre-millennium party animal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Capturing ten years of Europe's illegal raves". Dazed. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b c Marie Healy, Claire (7 December 2017). "Unseen, unreal moments from the diaries of a 90s raver". Dazed. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Vinca Petersen reminisces about good times with Corinne Day in 90s London". Hero. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ^ a b "Modelling, Raving and Squatting: Vinca Petersen's Diary of the 1990s". AnotherMan. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b "Four Women and a 'Deuce and a Quarter': A 1999 Roadtrip, in Photographs". AnOther. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b Clark, Imogen (19 November 2018). "Glass reviews Deuce and a Quarter by Vinca Petersen – The Glass Magazine". Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ a b Petersen, Vinca. "Vinca Petersen: the roads that made me". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Future Fantasy". Ditto. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Vinca Petersen Deuce and a Quarter". IDEA Store. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ ""You Were Really Part of Something": Vinca Petersen Remembers the Rave Days". AnOther. 12 July 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2020.