Johan Van Der Keuken – July 14

Johan Van Der Keuken
July 14th

Published by Van Zoetendaal Publishers, 2010
Size: 19.5 x 27 cm
64 Pages
Softcover
Languages: French, English

It turned out that, in addition to the famous photograph of the dancers taken on July 14, 1958, Johan van der Keuken's archive contains a large number of negatives from his Paris period that have never been published. These rolls were taken on the same occasion as the widely known print and, taken together, depict a fascinating dance scene. If we look at the photographs in chronological order, we can observe the people who enter the field of vision: young women wearing floral-patterned skirts and headscarves with their hair, older couples, men from North Africa, and young children with their parents. People gather around the dance floor and the music starts.
People chat, peripheral extras become the main actors, a man with a ladder crosses the frame, a car drives around the corner. Some begin to dance, while others watch from the wings. We see girlfriends dancing together, older couples, and children too. Passersby accidentally become new dance partners.
Later, Johan van de Keuken selected the most beautiful of these negatives, the photo that, for him, summed up this event in a single image. For this book, we opted for a different approach, incorporating what surrounds this particular shot, what preceded and what followed, bringing this session to a close. This reveals the "cinematic" quality of the scene, the movement it embodies. It's as if the photographer is dancing with the twirling audience.

- Text from the publisher.