PHOTO:Ed van der Elsken-Camera in Love
The Dutch photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elsken is well known for his remarkable street photographs. He recorded his encounters with people on the street worldwide in numerous photos, films and photo books. Traveling through Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo and Africa, he displayed a taste and keen photographic eye for striking and eccentric personalities. During his lifetime, der Elksen acquired almost legendary status which has since been lost.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Stedelijk Museum Archive
As a street photographer, Ed van der Elsken roamed cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Tokyo in search of uncompromising, colourful characters, striking young women and wayward youth. Van der Elsken’s photos and films are visually powerful and uncompromising, emblematic of their time and yet utterly timeless. Ed van der Elsken both chronicled, and influenced the Zeitgeist*. In his work, he developed a direct, unconventional and personal style. The exhibition “Camera in Love” at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is Ed van der Elsken’s work largest overview in 25 years. Ed van der Elsken was born in Amsterdam but his life was to be one of travel and exploration. An artist at his core, in 1937, he learned the skill of stone cutting at Amsterdam’s Van Tetterode Steenhouwerij, with the dream of becoming a sculptor. After studying at Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs, in 1944 der Elsken enrolled in the professional sculpture programme, which he was forced to abandon to escape Nazi forced labour. In 1947, following the end of the war, he found work in photo sales and attempted a correspondence course with the Fotovakschool in Den Haag, after developing an interest in photography that would soon take over his life. In 1950 he moved to Paris, here der Elsken encountered the bohemian society of Saint-Germain-de-Prés that would become the focus of his photographs, in a post-war stupor, the young people der Elsken encountered were fuelled by drugs, drink and jazz, providing him with the often uncompromising subjects that characterised his work. Upon arrival in the city, der Elsken was employed in the darkrooms of the Magnum photography agency, which involved printing for Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Ernst Haas. All the while, he was taking to the streets of Paris, photographing the locals, it was in this that he began to gain a reputation. In 1956, Van der Elsken became an international sensation with “Love on the Left Bank” a photographic novel inspired by his own life, about a group of young bohemians leading an aimless life in post-war Paris. Van der Elsken identified with their bohemian ethos, but retained the detachment necessary to photograph his companions. With its flashbacks and ever-shifting viewpoints, the book’s cinematic structure is both characteristic of, and foreshadows, the filmmaker Van der Elsken would later become. It was the first of around twenty photo books, including “Bagara” (1958), which records impressions of village life, big game hunting, and rituals in Central Africa, “Jazz” (1959), “Sweet Life” (1966), “Amsterdam” (1979), “Adventures in the Countryside” (1980) and “Discovering Japan” (1988). These books, in conjunction with his films, form the heart of his oeuvre and the core of the exhibition, which has been structured as two courses. The outer course focuses on dummies, contact sheets, and sketches that reveal how the books were made, and Van der Elsken’s working processes. The inner course is devoted to over 200 iconic prints. A selection of film fragments and slide projections accentuate his significance as a filmmaker, and the relationship between his films and photographic work.
* Zeitgeist is the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of the members of a society in a particular period in time.
Info: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museumplein 10, Amsterdam, Duration: 4/2-21/5/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, Fri: 10:00-22:00, www.stedelijk.nl
