Andersen was born on 26 October 1844 in Huseby, Annisse Parish, the son of farmer Anders Pedersen (c. 1817–78) and Ane Sørensdatter (c. 1821–1904).

[1] His most important technical invention was an improvement of the "collodion wet plate process" which enabled the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed inside the camera.

He entered into a collaboration with photographer Peter L. Petersen (after 1901: Elfelt), who was in 1883 granted an exclusive right to sell Andersen's cameras.

A later, improved camera (the unicum, originally introduced by Bausch and Lomb) from 1904 is now in the collections of the National Museum of Denmark.

A camera made for Familie Journalen's Holger Rosenberg (for 160 recordings on an unperforated 35 mm film) is now on display in the Danish Technical Museum in Helsingør.