Sweet Life — Ed van der Elsken — Tokyo Photographic School — 1968 — First Japanese Edition

This first Japanese edition was published in June 1968 by Tokyo Photographic School, following the original international publication of 1966. Edited by Eikoh Hosoe and Atsuko Watanabe, it combines gravure reproduction by Tokyo Gravure Printing with letterpress printing and binding by Toppan. The original illustrated cardboard slipcase accompanies this copy.

Sweet Life follows Ed van der Elsken and Gerda van der Veen on the fourteen-month journey they made around the world in 1959–1960. Travelling through Africa, Asia and North America, Van der Elsken assembled an intensely personal record of encounters, streets and everyday life. The sequence moves between intimate faces and wider scenes, connecting Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United States and Mexico through his direct engagement with the people he photographed.

Large images, deep blacks and pronounced grain give the book its distinctive visual force. Changes of scale and photographs extending across the spread turn the journey into a continuous reading experience, while the photographer’s commentary anchors the images in lived encounters. 

Technical Sheet
Photography, text and layout: Ed van der Elsken
Publisher: Tokyo Photographic School (東京写真専門学院出版局), Tokyo
Publication date: 1 June 1968
Edition: First Japanese edition
Editors: Eikoh Hosoe and Atsuko Watanabe
Translator: 吉本普一郎
Pagination: 30 unnumbered pages and 179 pages of plates
Dimensions: Approximately 30 × 31 cm
Binding: Hardcover with original illustrated cardboard slipcase
Language: Japanese
Illustrations: Black-and-white photographs
Gravure printing: Tokyo Gravure Printing Co.
Letterpress printing and binding: Toppan Printing Co.
Printed in: Japan
ISBN: No ISBN identified for this edition
Condition: The original cardboard slipcase has substantial edge wear, tears, creasing and punctures. The opening shows light age toning.