Ed van der Elsken
| Ed van der Elsken | |
|---|---|
Ed van der Elsken (1988)
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| Born |
10 March 1925 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 28 December 1990 (aged 65) Edam, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Known for | Photography, film |
| Spouse(s) | Ata Kandó, Gerda van der Veen, Anneke Hillhorst |
Eduard "Ed" van der Elsken (10 March 1925 – 28 December 1990) was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker.
His imagery provides quotidian, intimate and autobiographic perspectives on the European zeitgeist spanning the period of the Second World War into the nineteen-seventies in the realms of love, sex, art, music (particularly jazz), and alternative culture. He described his camera as ‘infatuated’, and said: "I’m not a journalist, an objective reporter, I’m a man with likes and dislikes".
Ed van der Elsken was born on March 10, 1925 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In 1937, wanting to become a sculptor, he learned stone-cutting at Amsterdam's Van Tetterode Steenhouwerij. After completing preliminary studies at the Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs, the predecessor of the Rietveld Academy (dir. Mart Stam), he enrolled (in 1944) in the professional sculpture program, which he abandoned to escape Nazi forced labour. That year, after the Battle of Arnhem he was stationed in a mine-disposal unit where he was first shown Picture Post by British soldiers. Later, in 1947, he discovered American sensationalist photographer Weegee's Naked City. These encounters inspired his interest in photography and that year he took work in photo sales and attempted a correspondence course with the Fotovakschool in Den Haag, failing the final examination. He subsequently gained membership of the GKf (photographer's section of the Dutch federation of practitioners of the applied arts).
At the suggestion of Dutch photographer Emmy Andriesse (1914–1953) he moved in 1950 to Paris. He was employed in the darkrooms of the Magnum photography agency, printing for Henri Cartier-Bresson (who was impressed with his street photography), Robert Capa and Ernst Haas. There he met (and in 1954 married) fellow photographer Ata Kandó (b. 1913 Budapest, Hungary), twelve years his senior, living with her three children among the 'ruffians' and bohemians of Paris from 1950 to 1954.
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