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Background information
"This monograph, 'Ellen Thorbecke – from Peking to Paris' tells the story of Ellen THORBECKE, who occupied a unique position in international photography. The photo volume presents rare pictures of everyday life in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris and the Middle East in the 1930s and 1940s. Places where she lived and worked during her life and which form the guiding principle of the book. In 1931 Ellen THORBECKE left for China. For this trip she bought her first camera. From a home-grown journalist, she developed into a compelling photographer who provided her photos with engaged observations about the people and places she visited. Ellen THORBECKE made reports in a lively candid style with an eye for the vitality of street life and has produced several photo books. Her visual stories make her oeuvre, one of the pearls of the Collection of the Dutch Fotomuseum, a unique time document. Her small but special photo archive was entrusted to the museum in 2008 and consists of 638 black and white negatives, 166 of which were made in China. The images Thorbecke made are still relevant today because of her human, direct and unbiased way of looking.
Content
The book 'Ellen Thorbecke – from Peking to Paris' is published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Ellen Thorbeckes China' in the Dutch Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. It is the first monograph in an ongoing series on the collection of the Dutch Photomuseum." (© Lecturis, 2021)