Ed van der Elsken. Visitors of a concert and policeman at a concert of the Lionel Hampton Big Band in the Houtrusthallen in The Hague 24 March, 1956. Gelatin silver print.
Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. ©Ed van der Elsken
Ed van der Elsken: Crazy World – Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum presents ‘Ed van der Elsken: Crazy World’, an exhibition focusing on the personal archive that sheds new light on the most celebrated 20th century photographer in the Netherlands. 30 October 2020 to 10 January 2021.]]>
Source: Rijksmuseum
The recent acquisition of Ed van der Elsken’s artistic estate has provided the ideal opportunity to shed light on the working practice of the Dutch photographer. The display of more than a hundred objects – including photographs, photobook designs and contact sheets – invites the viewer to look over the shoulder of the artist at work.
Photographers generally take more pictures than they publish or exhibit, and that was certainly true in the case of Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990). A large quantity of his works, both famous and previously unknown, were archived at his home in the Dutch city of Edam. They include photographs, mock-up photobooks, annotated contact sheets, and designs for book covers. Many of these objects demonstrate that Van der Elsken’s photographs were often the outcome of choices and experimentation. And it was these images from the personal archive – demonstrating the doubts, thought process and reflections involved in the taking and printing of the photographs – that were selected for this exhibition. Examples include series of prints of the same shot, each with a unique combination of format, cropping and contrast, producing sometimes very different final results.
Ed van der Elsken’s passion for experimentation is apparent throughout the exhibition. While his approach to cropping and printing was ‘playful’, he was also a very good designer, and he was closely involved in the design of several of his own photobooks. He tried out a variety of titles, sequences, sizes and combinations of photos as he worked on his 1966 magnum opus “Sweet Life” in the period from about 1960 to 1966. The exhibition includes a selection from his design mock-up for “Sweet Life”, his 1966 masterpiece.
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