This book is the first photographic survey of the Rotterdam artist Wally Elenbaas (1912-2008) and his great love Esther ('Es') Hartog (1905-1988). Although Elenbaas became best known after the war for his graphic works, paintings, and monumental works, he began his artistic career with photography. Beginning in 1935, he and Es spent nearly a half century photographing their own environment, which yielded a highly personal and intimate oeuvre. Yet their work was also often experimental and, unusual for the Netherlands, often of a surrealist nature.

This book is the first photographic survey of the Rotterdam artist Wally Elenbaas (1912-2008) and his great love Esther ('Es') Hartog (1905-1988). Although Elenbaas became best known after the war for his graphic works, paintings, and monumental works, he began his artistic career with photography. Beginning in 1935, he and Es spent nearly a half century photographing their own environment, which yielded a highly personal and intimate oeuvre. Yet their work was also often experimental and, unusual for the Netherlands, often of a surrealist nature.

At the beginning of the 1940s, the socially engaged Elenbaas joined the Association of Worker Photographers (Vereniging van Arbeidersfotografen), and along with Paul Schuitema and Dick Elffers he was also affiliated with the ‘Links Richten’ collective of ‘worker writers’. His photographs from the crisis years – of street scenes and unemployment demonstrations, alternating with abstract images – display all the Constructivist principles of form and the social engagement of the New Photography. In addition, the nudes and portraits, often of his wife Esther Hartog, form a highpoint in the photographic oeuvre of a unique artist couple.