LOVE ON THE LEFT BANK

Internationally Ed van der Elsken is one of the best known Dutch photographers. For almost forty years he recorded his encounters with people in a style that was just like him: direct and full of bravura. Wandering around in Paris, Hong Kong or Amsterdam, or travelling through Africa or Japan, his eye always fell on people who, just like himself, did not follow the beaten path. With that personal approach, given shape in over 20 photo books and dozens of television films, he inspired many young photographers. His first book, Love on the Left Bank, appeared in 1956 and made his name internationally. In the book he tells the story of his ramblings in Paris, where he lived for a number of years. He photographed everything he encountered there, and over a long period observed the life of a group of bohemians, idiosyncratic young people like the artist Vali Meyers. He arranged his photographs of them into a fictional love story, for which he himself wrote the texts. In cooperation with Jurriaan Schrofer he designed the book as a photographic novel, a revolutionary design at the time. Noorderlicht presents a selection from this pioneering publication as an ode to a photographer who lauded love and life.