Mario Testino and
Ed van der Elsken

02/05/2016

© MARIO TESTINO, Kate with Mohawk, Paris, 1996

Two photographers, Mario Testino and Ed van der Elsken, rhyme with one another convincingly: In the lust for life – from different points of time.

In 1997, Testino photographed the models Stella Tennant and Kristen McMenamy while they were changing during a Dior fashion show in Paris. The unguarded moment undermines the glamour of fashion. In 1966, Van der Elsken saw two strikingly dressed young women in Dam Square in Amsterdam.

The dialogue makes it immediately obvious that the fashion photographer Mario Testino also has an eye of a street photographer, and the street photographer Ed van der Elsken had an eye for fashion. Me and You also shows how photographers who come from different eras and different continents can be kindred spirits.

Since the early 80s, Mario Testino has admired the work of Ed van der Elsken. Earlier this year he organized an exhibition of Van der Elsken’s work at MATE, his own museum in his birthplace of Lima, Peru. Drawing from this exploration, he has now made a selection from his oeuvre, and from Van der Elsken’s. These selections zoom in on the photographer as flâneur, who is not out for that one perfect photo, but to capture unique and unforgettable moments. ‘I always need to find that unique moment, not the perfect one,’ says Testino. Those could have been Ed van der Elsken’s words too.

The same empathy can be found in the nudes by both photographers: The lust for life is at the heart of these photos.

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