Ellen Thorbecke – From Peking to Paris

‘Ellen Thorbecke ? From Peking to Paris’ tells the impressive life story of Ellen Thorbecke (1902?1973), a photographer who holds a special place in the history of international photography. In this richly illustrated book, her oeuvre is presented through the cities and regions where she lived and worked: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, and the Middle East. Thorbecke left for China in 1931, where she purchased her first camera. Originally trained as a journalist, she developed into a discerning photographer with a distinctly engaged gaze. Her lively, often spontaneous street photography depicts daily life with great attention to human interaction and vitality. Her photographs were accompanied by personal observations and formed the basis for influential publications such as Peking Studies (1934) and People in China (1935). The book offers a rare and intimate snapshot of the 1930s and 1940s. Thorbecke’s work is distinguished by her direct, human, and unbiased way of looking, making her images relevant even today. Her compact yet extraordinary archive, housed at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in 2008, consists of 638 black-and-white negatives, 166 of which were made in China. It is considered one of the gems of the museum collection. This publication appears on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Ellen Thorbecke’s China’ at the Nederlands Fotomuseum and is the first monograph in an ongoing series about the museum’s collection.