Henk Elenga in LA, pictured by Rick Vermeulen.

The Celebration Of Existence

Photographs by Henk Elenga

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Rotterdam artist Henk Elenga represented the Hard Werken design studios and magazine in Los Angeles. He was repeatedly featured in early editions of Emigre Magazine. In 1990 he came to Amsterdam to show his staged photography at Torch Gallery. He invited me to contribute a short essay to his charming little catalogue, which was produced in LA. My introduction to his work did not appear in the main booklet but somehow ended up, as a bonus, on some kind of dust cover or annex. It’s the kind of disappointment that is part and parcel of the existence of a beginning art and design critic.