This is a facsimile edition of one of the 'classic' photography books of the 20th century. Originally published in 1956, it has been avidly sought by collectors and photographers alike. Teh book focuses on the Left Bank of Paris at the time when the area was a centre of creative ferment and the home of the artists, writers, and aesthetes who would determine the cultural agenda of a generation. With its unconventional, gritty, snapshot-like technique, the work was widely acclaimed as expanding the boundaries of documentary photography.

Born 1925 in Amsterdam, Ed van der Elsken is recognised as one of the great photographers of the 20th century. During his lifetime he published over twenty books. In recent years his work has also been exhibited widely throughout the world. Ed van der Elsken died in 1990.

Vali Myers, who featurs as 'Ann', was born 1930 in Sydney, Australia. A dancer and artist, she arrived in Paris in 1949. During the post-war years, living in the streets and cafes of St. Germain des Pres, she continued to dance and draw -- her drawings feature in the book. She later travelled extensively, becoming internationally known as an artist. She founded the Il Porto Wildlife Oasis, near Positano. Valie Myers died in 2003.

Description from the original publication:

A story in photographs about Paris -- the Paris of the young men and women who haunt the Left Bank. They dine of half a loaf, smoke hashish, sleep in parked cars or on benches under the plane trees, sometimes borrowing a hotel room from a luckier friend to shelter their love. Some of them write, or paint, or dance. Ed van der Elsken, a young Dutch photographer, stalked his prey for many months along the boulevards, in the cafes and under the shadow of prison walls. Whatever may happen in real life to Ann and her Mexican lover, their strange youth will be preserved 'alive' in this book for many years.