Anticipating the moody verité of much recent photography, ED VAN DER ELSKEN’s vignettes of left bank demimondaines, Tokyo Yakuza, and Soweto insurgents are gaining a new following. As the Dutch artist’s first full-scale retrospective goes on view at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, VINCE ALETTI examines van der Elsken’s autobiographical legacy.

Who am I to spout about life, love, happiness? About whether all’s right with the world, or whether it’s just a vale of tears, so store up your treasures for heaven. I think it’s unbelievable, fabulous, this life of ours —everything, the birds and the bees, the