New York, Harry N. Abrams, [1966].
With the exhibition catalogue laid in. Sweet Life takes its title from the name of a steamboat photographed in the Philippines. Van der Elsken photographed this sprawling odyssey between 1959 and 1960 while travelling with his wife Gerda through Africa, Asia and America. He funded the trip by soliciting two magazine commissions to work along the route and with a stipend from Dutch Television. It is partly devoted to documenting the struggle for independence of the first African nations, done with a certain degree of optimism. Van der Elsken intended for the photograph used on the cover, which shows a man repairing a machine, to symbolise regained autonomy, and in his captions, van der Elsken was critical of the apartheid regime in South Africa and racial segregation in the United States.
Ed van der Elsken's Sweet Life, like William Klein's Life is Good & Good For You in New York (1956) and Andy Warhol's Moderna Museet catalogue (1968), was an important influence on the emerging generation of Provoke-era Japanese photographers, who took many of the ideas in these books to extreme conclusions.
First American edition (published simultaneously in Dutch, German, German book club, and Spanish editions, and two years later in French and Japanese editions); 4to (292 x 295 mm, 11½ x 11½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure, slight separation between text and image section, toning to margins and to first image page from text leaves as usual; endpapers illustrated with images from contact sheets, black cloth-covered boards, spine and upper side stamped in white, minor wear to bottom edge, photo-illustrated dust-jacket, light wear to extremities, light rubbing and toning to lower panel, near-fine in a very good dust-jacket; [28], 179, [1]pp. [With:] 'Ed van der Elsken in het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 8 september t/m 23 oktober 1966' exhibition catalogue laid in.
The Photobook A History, I pp254-5; The Dutch Photobook pp120-1; Errata Editions Books on Books 13
Ed van der Elsken's Sweet Life, like William Klein's Life is Good & Good For You in New York (1956) and Andy Warhol's Moderna Museet catalogue (1968), was an important influence on the emerging generation of Provoke-era Japanese photographers, who took many of the ideas in these books to extreme conclusions.
First American edition (published simultaneously in Dutch, German, German book club, and Spanish editions, and two years later in French and Japanese editions); 4to (292 x 295 mm, 11½ x 11½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure, slight separation between text and image section, toning to margins and to first image page from text leaves as usual; endpapers illustrated with images from contact sheets, black cloth-covered boards, spine and upper side stamped in white, minor wear to bottom edge, photo-illustrated dust-jacket, light wear to extremities, light rubbing and toning to lower panel, near-fine in a very good dust-jacket; [28], 179, [1]pp. [With:] 'Ed van der Elsken in het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 8 september t/m 23 oktober 1966' exhibition catalogue laid in.
The Photobook A History, I pp254-5; The Dutch Photobook pp120-1; Errata Editions Books on Books 13
About us
Shapero Rare Books is an internationally renowned dealer in antiquarian & rare books and works on paper.
Our Bookshop and Gallery can be found in the heart of Mayfair at 106 New Bond Street, where most of our stock is available to view and on public display.
We exhibit at major international art fairs, including TEFAF (Maastricht and New York), Frieze Masters, Art Miami and Masterpiece London, as well as antiquarian & rare book fairs including New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hong Kong.
