Ed Van Der Elsken, LA VIE FOLLE, 2017

Immortalizing people like me, a common thread through Ed van der Elsken’s (1925-1990) work, this leitmotiv led the photographer to take pictures of his relatives as much as strangers all his life. There wasn’t any distance between him and his subjects, and he often took part in the situation, when he didn’t provoke it like a director.

From his now cult series, Love on the Left Bank, to the popular neighborhoods of Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, this first retrospective book in French looks back on over 40 years of photography and films.