Dutch Street Photographer Ed van der Elsken’s rare photo album sold for $21,250 at an auction in New York, setting a new record for the photographer and filmmaker.
The album made in 1951, comprises of 27 black and white photographs depicting Parisian street scenes, as well as portraits of Dutch photographers Emmy Andriesse and Ata Kando.
Five bidders competed for the work during a photography sale at Swann Galleries in New York. The album was estimated to fetch $10,000–$15,000. Curator Hans Rooseboom at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam purchased it on behalf of the museum.
The album was in the hold of Elsken family ever since it was created and this is the first time it had appeared in an auction. Elsken is known for his black and white photographs of urban life throughout Europe. In Paris, where he began living in 1950, he worked at the esteemed Magnum Photos agency, printing photographs for Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. In 1952, Edward Steichen included him in a MoMA exhibition, and in 1956, he published his first book of Paris photographs, titled Love on the Left Bank (1956).
“The piece can add to our understanding of a photographer who is now receiving new and much-deserved attention from collectors and institutions,” said Deborah Rogal, Swann’s head of photography.