".... Here again is that infallible instinct for body language. Van der Elsken clearly spotted this group because he found them beautiful; he undoubtedly called out to them since the are posing to a certain degree, distracted from their usual behavior for a moment, though thiw is less explicit than in his later, more 'directed' photographs." - Visser, Hripsime, " Ed van der Elsken 55". New York: Phaidon Press, 2002.

A group of people in front of the Cotton Club Amsterdam 1956.
'This was the time Surinamers and black American soldiers on leave started to visit the Cotton Club, a jazz club on the Nieuwmarkt' Ed van der Elsken, 'Once Upon A Time', p. 65