Curated by Hripsimé Visser

Curator Hripsimé Visser describes the Dutch photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elsken (1925–1990) as “a child of his time: melancholy in the ’50s, rebellious in the ’60s, liberated in the ’70s, contemplative in the ’80s.” This sprawling retrospective promises to explore each of these phases through more than two hundred vintage prints, slide projections, film clips, and books—a mere fraction of the output of one of the twentieth century’s most driven, eccentric, and underappreciated image makers. Van der Elsken made his mark in 1956 with Love on the Left Bank, a cinema-verité-style immersion into Paris’s bohemian underground, haunted by Brassaï but anticipating Godard, Truffaut, and Goldin. Van der Elsken was never an objective observer, but his work became increasingly personal. His final film, Bye (1990), about his losing battle with prostate cancer, closes with a challenge and an invitation: “Show the world who you are.” Travels to the Jeu de Paume, Paris, June 12–Sept. 24; Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, Jan. 23–May 20, 2018.

— Vince Aletti