‘Susie’s Blue Bar’
During his voyage around the world from 1959 to 1960, Van der Elsken photographed prostitutes in the Philippine port of Cebu City, who would wait for arriving ships and throw notes (tied to a stone) onto the deck. This was how they lured the sailors to the bars, honkytonks, and dance halls. ‘Those guys also want something from time to time,’ Van der Elsken wrote in the book Sweet Life about these photographs.