Even though his cameras were ever-present, van der Elsken’s photos didn’t contain the least tinge of solipsism. It didn’t explore his personal identity – he was far more concerned with using his camera for documenting the social culture around him, especially the counterculture. His lenses captured the reckless, drug-taking bohemians in postwar Paris, the gruesome slaughter of hunted elephants in Africa, the demolition of Amsterdam’s looted and destroyed Jewish Quarter, segregation in South Africa under apartheid, jazz musicians onstage, and all forms of love – gender-bending, interracial and otherwise. He’s most famous for pictures shot in grainy, high-contrast black and white.
Ed van der Elsken
