Born March 10, 1925, in Amsterdam; died December 28, 1990, in Edam, was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker. He grew up in the Amsterdam residential neighborhood of Betondorp and became known as a street photographer, travel photographer—traveling alone to Japan more than a dozen times—and as a chronicler of the hippie movement.

Life and Work

Throughout his life, van der Elsken used the city and the street as his stage, photographing the life that unfolded there. In 1937, he began training as a sculptor but later abandoned these studies. After the Second World War, he turned to photography, developing a particular interest in the work of photographer Weegee and his book Naked City.

In 1950, van der Elsken moved to Paris, where he initially worked as a photographic printer for the Magnum Photos agency, producing prints for photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Ernst Haas. During this period, he created the work that would later be published as Love on the Left Bank (Liebe in St.-Germain-des-Prés), released in 1956. The book brought him immediate international recognition.

While in Paris, van der Elsken met photographer Ata Kandó, who already had three children. The couple married in 1954 and later moved to the Netherlands, though the marriage ended shortly thereafter.

From the 1970s onward, van der Elsken also achieved success as a filmmaker. In 1971, he was awarded the Dutch State Prize for Film for The Infatuated Camera (De verliefde camera). His final film, Bye (1990), documents his struggle with cancer and confronts his own impending death.

In 2017, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presented a major retrospective exhibition titled De verliefde camera, which was also shown in Paris and Madrid.

Reference

Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition.
Retrieved January 19, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_van_der_Elsken