Wij zijn 17

Ed van der Elsken, just back from a stay of several years in Paris,
saw the work of Van der Keuken and encouraged him to publish it.

The publication was a success, five editions, but this selection of gloomy, smoking, artistic youngsters also received a lot of criticism in these years of reconstruction after the Second World War; Following the publication of Wij
zijn 17, Johan van der Keuken received a grant to study at the Film Academy in Paris. And the rest is history…

• Bussum, Van Dishoeck
• 1955
• 8vo (240 x 155 mm), 60) pp
• Softcover with an illustrated front cover
• First edition, first printing of the first book by this famous Dutch artist, at the age of 17. 
• 30 (including the front cover)black and white portraits of his friends.
• Text by the  Dutch writer Simon Carmiggelt.
• Lit.: Boom/ Suermondt, Photography between covers, page 88,
  Parr/Badger, The Photobook, A History, vol. I, page 244, Auer, 802 photo books from the M. + M. collection, number 354, Gierstberg/Suermondt, The Dutch Photobook, pages 46 and 47.