...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins
Een vrouw zit met gesloten ogen op een caféterras, een jonge vrouw en man staan rechts van haar, hun blik is leeg, starend. Drie bolvormige hanglampen en hun reflecties verlichten de nachtelijke scène die in fluwelige zwarttinten is afgedrukt. Het is de openingsfoto van Een liefdesgeschiedenis in Saint Germain des Prés, de fotoroman waarmee Ed van der Elsken in 1956 internationaal doorbrak. Ann en Manuel, de staande personages, zijn de hoofdrolspelers in dit verhaal over een tot mislukken gedoemde liefde. De context is het leven aan de zelfkant van een groep jongeren in het naoorlogse Parijs. Zij hangen drinkend en hasj rokend rond in cafés, dansen uitzinnig op jazzmuziek en leven op straat of in goedkope hotels. De fotograaf was persoonlijk betrokken bij zijn onderwerpen. Eigenlijk was Manuel Van der Elskens alter ego en het boek een ode aan kunstenares en muze Vali Myers. Zij domineert dit, vanuit een laag standpunt vastgelegde, beeld – en vele anderen in Een liefdesgeschiedenis.
ELSKEN, ED VAN DER. CATALOGUS 1966. - Ed van der Elsken. Amst., Stedelijk Museum 1966. Unpaginated [16 pp]. Ills (b./w. photographs). Soft cover. (SM cat. no. 399 [= no. 400]).*Typograpy by Wim Crouwel, text by Ed van der Elsken.
Een vrouw zit met gesloten ogen op een caféterras, een jonge vrouw en man staan rechts van haar, hun blik is leeg, starend. Drie bolvormige hanglampen en hun reflecties verlichten de nachtelijke scène die in fluwelige zwarttinten is afgedrukt. Het is de openingsfoto van Een liefdesgeschiedenis in Saint Germain des Prés, de fotoroman waarmee Ed van der Elsken in 1956 internationaal doorbrak. Ann en Manuel, de staande personages, zijn de hoofdrolspelers in dit verhaal over een tot mislukken gedoemde liefde. De context is het leven aan de zelfkant van een groep jongeren in het naoorlogse Parijs. Zij hangen drinkend en hasj rokend rond in cafés, dansen uitzinnig op jazzmuziek en leven op straat of in goedkope hotels. De fotograaf was persoonlijk betrokken bij zijn onderwerpen. Eigenlijk was Manuel Van der Elskens alter ego en het boek een ode aan kunstenares en muze Vali Myers. Zij domineert dit, vanuit een laag standpunt vastgelegde, beeld – en vele anderen in Een liefdesgeschiedenis.
ELSKEN, ED VAN DER. CATALOGUS 1966. - Ed van der Elsken. Amst., Stedelijk Museum 1966. Unpaginated [16 pp]. Ills (b./w. photographs). Soft cover. (SM cat. no. 399 [= no. 400]).*Typograpy by Wim Crouwel, text by Ed van der Elsken.
German photographer Michael Schmidt, like Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma who was profiled in the previous post, spends several years on a single project. Schmidt is best known for Waffenruhe (Ceasefire), a study of Berlin immediately before the fall of the Wall, which is widely considered one of the greatest contemporary photobooks.
Schmidt's latest obsession is the mechanized, industrialized food system of contemporary Western culture. The project has resulted in a book,Lebensmittel (Food), and is currently being exhibited in Europe.
Using his trademark style combining social documentary and urban topographics, he explores the fascinating topic of how we feed ourselves, from the farm to the table (or the fast-food restaurant).
Here is what Artforum has to say about the associated exhibition:
With his current exhibition, “Lebensmittel” (Food), which consists of 177 photographs, Berlin-based photographer Michael Schmidt debuts the results of his research into agribusiness, which between 2006 and 2010 took him to many different locations throughout Europe. Schmidt sought out places where edibles are produced, packaged, distributed, and sold. Yet the specific locations are never revealed, neither in the exhibition nor in the accompanying catalogue. Thus the mostly uninhabited cultivated fields and plantations, the motifs of fish, pig, and cattle breeding, of large-scale bakeries as well as supermarkets, appear to be anonymous and exchangeable: everywhere and nowhere.
Michael Schmidt // Waffenruhe from haveanicebook on Vimeo. Schmidt’s interest in a nonspecifity of place should come as no surprise. He is known not for single images but for vastly conceived series, as in the case of “EIN-HEIT” (Unity), 1991–94; “Waffenruhe” (Ceasefire), 1985–87; and “Irgendwo” (Somewhere), 2001–2004. In the present show, which can be seen in Innsbruck this summer and in Berlin next spring, it is precisely a multitude of images that Schmidt pursues. Within the series, an image forms of the maximally rationalized production of edible goods.
There are nonetheless two narrative lines to be read: On the one hand, the observer is confronted with technical equipment which one only recognizes after a closer look as a fish farm or mussel bank. One sees sheer endlessness: one part of a stripped field, fenced-in production facilities that reveal nothing as to what will be processed there. Other shots reveal the subject under investigation at close range: broken eggs behind glass, shrink-wrapped and labeled beef, swollen udders with milk stools set at the ready, greased griddles from which tumble french fries, a great green apple in front of Styrofoam. In this time of food scandals, one might suspect these photographs to be a means of agitation. But this is clearly not Schmidt’s intention. “Lebensmittel,” in all its clarity, comes across instead as the cool image-record of a complex system on the brink of collapse.
The following video, even if you don't speak German, provides a wider look at the images and, more significantly, illustrates the comparative power of the exhibition relative to the presentation of the same images in book form.
annet gelink asked the three most prominent female dutch artists to make a selection of works by ed van der elsken and asked jhim lamoree to put the show together. the three artists, rineke dijkstra, marlene dumas, and marijke van warmerdam, each use photography in their work in different ways. dumas uses photography as an inspiration for her paintings; dijkstra creates series with her photographic portraits that give insights into specific cultural subgroups; for van warmerdam, photography is just one of the many available mediums which she uses to create her works. ed van der elsken used his camera as a means with which to explore the world, document it and interpret it. as he mentioned, in an interview for ‘vrij nederland’ in january 1987, he tried to capture the universal human element with pathos and style.
dijkstra, dumas and van warmerdam have each made their own selection which provide interesting insights on van der elsken and the three artists. jhim lamoree: “ed van der elsken’s photographs had a range of expression, and the selections made by marlene dumas, rineke dijkstra and marijke van warmerdam attest to this. each was drawn to a different aspect of his work. they, too, observed and made choices. the connection between ed, marlene, marijke and rineke is their ability to seek out the other without losing sight of, or a sense of, themselves. they size up the world in a humane, personal manner. their attitude is similar, but the aesthetic results of each differ entirely. the selections cause an intriguing and enigmatic doubling to occur: the show not only gives a varied portrait of ed’s oeuvre, but also a self-portrait of the oeuvres of marlene, marijke en rineke.”
Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas and Marijke van Warmerdam looked at the oeuvre of the late Dutch photographer, Ed van der Elsken, which has resulted in a charming exhibition, ‘Look. Ed! at Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam.
Is there a more photogenic city in the world through which to meander than Paris? The scene in Louis Malle’s ‘Ascenseur pour l’échafaud’ comes to mind wherein Jeanne Moreau strolls, at night, through the city searching for her lover. The reason, though, why the scene became immortal was due to the score created by Miles Davis whose trumpet style gave the film a moody, melancholic atmosphere. The film is a wonderful homage to Paris.
Around the time in which this film was made, the Amsterdam-born photographer, Ed van der Elsken, also meandered through Paris with his camera. He spent most of his time on the left bank in Saint Germain des Prés where he hung out with a group of disillusioned bohemians who had a sombre outlook on life but also imbued him with a sense for style and class that particularly appealed to him. It produced a gem of a book that is coveted by art collectors, ‘Love on the Left Bank’ (1955), wherein Van der Elsken extensively documented their lives in cafes, in clubs, on the streets and the Paris metro. The book tells the fictional story of Ann, played by Van der Elsken’s muse, the Australian dancer and artist, Vali Myers, and her circle of vagabond friends. The book can be regarded as one of the forerunners of docudrama. One can imagine it could also be a source of inspiration for a fashion editorial – something with the gravitas of a feature shot by Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue.
Dumasselected two pictures that featured in ‘Love on the Left Bank’. One of them is of Myers adorned with heavy black make-up around her eyes who narcissistically kisses herself in a mirror, and the other is of a couple passionately (French) kissing. In the catalogue Dumas writes that “my selection had largely to do with artistic expression, with cultural rites and places where art manifests itself”. There are two wonderful pictures of artistic expression of the legendary Jazz trumpeter, Chet Baker: one in which he is singing, with the other depicting his concentrated demenaour whilst playing his instrument, during a night performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. These close-up black and white pictures are so coarse-grained as Van der Elsken was not allowed to use flash photography during the performance.
Aside from one picture that Van Warmerdam selected, all the pictures in this show are in black and white and printed by Van der Elsken himself. The reason he made prints was specifically for the production of his books. His early prints are all in small format as he didn’t have much money to make prints. (The photograph of a façade of a bookstore in Harlem, New York, is even printed in two halves).
Van der Elsken was fascinated with people from different cultures and their circumstances and he travelled around Africa, Japan, United States and Mexico to photograph them. Armed with an infinite curiosity, he strolled through metropoles such as Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, with a good nose for special situations, odd characters or faces who stood out in the crowd, which he then captured on film. The results produce an image that, when viewed, gives the spectator a sense that they are witnessing the scene as though it were unfolding in front of their eyes at that very moment.
This particular gift is most present in Rineke Dijkstra’s selection of a collection of intimate images and special moments Van der Elsken had encountered on the streets. On a pedestrian crossing in Tokyo, a group of Japanese transvestites is striking a pose in front of his lens after a night of clubbing. Another curious moment is a picture involving two startled looking ladies and a policeman. It appears that they are witnessing their houseboat going up in flames. Although the scene is quite tragic, there is also something comical about the moment Van der Elsken captured: both women, dressed in typical 1960s attire, are holding a cigarette and it seems that the policeman, whose leather jacket is completely outdated, is warning one of the women not to step too close to the fire by holding her arm. Sometimes, reality is better than fiction. Intriguing is a close-up picture of a Tilda Swintonesque androgynous young man starring into the lens.
In Dijkstra’s selection of Van der Elsken work one can detect certain aspects that are also present in her own work: the stylized composition, the minimal backgrounds, direct eye contact, emotional intensity, an immediacy, realism, and daylight as the main source of light. Whether or not it was the intention, or a conscious decision, of the three artists to make a self-portrait out of Van der Elsken’s work, in Dijkstra’s selection it is most apparent.
Van Warmerdam selected photographs that were published in ‘Bagara’ (1958) – a book about Van der Elsken’s safari trip to Central Africa. It comprises a photograph of Van der Elsken’s companion during this trip; his tough looking bodyguard holding a rifle behind his neck and seven photographs of slayed and living elephants. There is a wonderous picture of a young elephant with a skin as shiny and smooth like a seal. It turns out the baby elephant is still-born, causing a feeling of shock, but also spellbindingly beautiful.
Two photographs of the series are actually stills from a 16mm film where a fierce running elephant just misses the camera. In order to make this striking image Van der Elsken must have kept Robert Capa’s quote in mind: “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”. Van der Elsken was always close enough.
In search for photogenic subjects Van der Elsken didn’t have to travel the world. The gallery shows fragments of his 1982 film, ‘A photographer films Amsterdam’, in which he meanders with his camera through the Dam square area and captured how unique and how photogenic Amsterdam is with its colourful population and tourists who are attracted to a city full of adventure. Although the score is not as iconic as in ‘Ascenseur pour l’échafaud’ – Larry Kaplan on flute – it can be considered as Van der Elsken’s homage to his city of birth, Amsterdam.
Written by Thierry Somers. Photographs Ed van der Elsken. Courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam.
