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1925 Eduard (Ed) van der Elsken was born in Amsterdam on 10 March.
1943 Followed for one year a course in sculpture at the
Institute for Applied Art Education (IVKO) in Amsterdam, but was forced
to leave the school by the German occupation.
1944-1945 Spent the final year of the war hidden underground in
the South of Holland, to avoid the German call-up. Joined the allied
liberation troops after the Battle of Arnhem.
1945-1947 Following a preparatory course as filmoperator.
Decided to become a photographer and followed a correspondence course
with the School of Professional Photography in The Hague, but failed
the exams.
1947-1950 Made his first street photographs in Amsterdam with
his father's 9 x 12" plate camera. Acquired experience working for
various other photographers and made photographs during his first trip
abroad. His photographs of Paris and Marseille were enthusiastically
received by members of the GKf, the most important post-war
organization for photographers in The Netherlands.
1950 Received a letter of introduction from Kryn Taconis, a
photographer who was also a member of the GKf, to Pierre Gassman,
Director of Pictorial Service, the photo laboratory of the Magnum
photographers in Paris. After a couple of months of working in the
darkroom, he left the job to resume taking his own pictures.
1950-1954 Became associated with a group of young people who
spent their time mainly in cafés around Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The
photographs of these bohemiens resulted in his autobiographical-tinted
pictorial novel Love on the Left Bank (1956). Married in 1954 the
photographer Ata Kando, whom he had met at Pictorial Service. Alongside
his independent photography, he had incidental assignments from clients
including L'Album du Figaro.
1953 Met Edward Steichen, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York, who was doing the preparatory work for The Family of Man
exhibition (1955). Steichen selected eighteen photographs by Van der
Elsken for the exhibition Post-War European Photography which opened in
May of 1953 in New York.
1955 Returned to Amsterdam and made several photographic series
for the magazine Vrij Nederland including reports on the ruffians in
Amsterdam and on the painter Karel Appel. Began making films with
journalist Jan Vrijman. Van der Elsken and Ata Kando were divorced in
September.
1956-1957 Left for French Equatorial Africa and travelled
through Ubangui Chari. His photographs would be published in the book
Bagara (1958).
1959-1960 Took a fourteen month trip around the world with his
second wife, Gerda van der Veen. The costs of the trip were covered by
making film reports broadcast on Dutch television.
1962 Disappointed by the difficulties in publishing a book about
his trip around the world, he stopped doing photography for five years,
and concentrated on film like Welcome into life dear little one.
1966 His book Sweet Life was finally published and was presented
during an exhibition of the same name at the Stedelijk Museum in
Amsterdam, showing the work from his trip.
1966-1979 Made many travel documentaries for the magazine
Avenue. For his film The Beloved Camera he received in 1971 the Dutch
National Film Award. Moved to a farm in Edam in the same year. In both
his still photographs and his films, country life began taking on an
increasingly more important role. He also made films and documentaries
abroad: in Bangladesh in 1974 and 1976. In 1977 in Pakistan,
Thailand, Borneo, Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Madagascar, Brazil, Haiti
and the Solomon Islands together with Anneke Hilhorst, whom he would
marry in 1984. The frequent use of color in this period resulted in his
first photo-book in color, Eye love you (1977.
1980-1984 The film and the book Adventures in the country were
released in 1980. Made various films in the succeeding years and
compiled the two books Amsterdam! Old Photo’s 1947-1970 (1979) and
Paris! Photo’s 1950-1954 (1981).
1984-1988 Was regularly in Japan, where he had a large
exhibition in Tokyo. The Dutch Ministry of Culture awarded him a grant
in 1987 to complete a book on Japan. The Discovery of Japan was
published in 1988. On returning from a trip to Korea which was meant to
result in a book about that country, Van der Elsken heard that he was
suffering from terminal cancer.
1989-1990 Following surgery, Van der Elsken still felt the urge
to work and made a film about the progress of his illness. This film,
Bye, was completed in 1990. Meanwhile he also worked on a book on Hong
Kong, published in 1997, and on his last retrospective book of
photographs, Once Upon A Time, which was released after the large
retrospective photography exhibition of the same name in the Stedelijk
Museum in Amsterdam in 1991. This show would travel through Europe and
Japan until the end of 1994. Ed van der Elsken died on December 28 in
Edam.
1991 The film Bye was shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival and on Dutch television. In Japan NHK broadcasted Bye.
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