Eduard van der Elsken was a genius Dutch photographer and filmmaker. He moved to Paris in 1950 and worked for the hymned Magnum photography agency, printing for the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson (who was impressed with his street photography), Robert Capa and Ernst Haas.
His grainy pictures of beatniks living in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Australian artist Vali Meyers were printed in Love on the Left Bank.
Van der Elsken returned to Amsterdam in 1955, the most civilized of cities, and settled in its working-class Nieuwmarkt. He documented the vivid and raw life of the capital of the Netherlands in his photographs.
