About

August 1959, exactly 60 years ago, Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990) and his wife Gerda van der Veen set off on a fourteen-month journey around the world: to West and South Africa, the Malaysian Peninsula, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and Mexico. In order to find funding for their travels, one of the commissions Van der Elsken took on was to report for the Katholieke Illustratie. During their travels Van der Elsken would regularly provide them with a report with photos and texts. But Van der Elsken’s main goal was making a book. His book Sweet Life was published in 1966 …