Erwin Olaf

Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's highly stylized mode of image-making offers a blend of mid-century modern and noir aesthetics, seen through a contemporary, fashion-inflected lens. In this enticing volume — the first time these three bodies of work have been presented as a whole — Olaf seduces the viewer via a mannered, restrained palette replete with faded avocado greens, golden-hued oranges, and subtle lilacs.

Each richly colored and sleekly composed image offers a sly reinterpretation of Norman Rockwell-like iconography and characters, manifesting a nostalgia that both burlesques and wryly celebrates America of the 1950s and '60s. As a whole, the material investigates what critic Jonathan Turner defines as "Olaf's recent fascination with the visual representation of such emotions as loss, loneliness, and quiet despair.... [He] plays games with the idea of cold reality versus cruel artifice, capturing that precise moment when innocence, hope, and joy are lost."

This project was made possible, in part, by generous support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam; Hasted Hunt Gallery, New York; and the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.

About the Author:

Erwin Olaf (born in Hilversum, the Netherlands, 1959) graduated from the Utrecht School for Journalism, in 1980, with a degree in newspaper journalism and photojournalism. Olaf has earned several Silver Lions for his commercial work, which has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, London Sunday Times, and Vanity Fair. He is represented by Flatland Gallery, Utrecht/Paris and Hasted Hunt, New York. A  solo exhibition of his work opened at the Fotomuseum, The Hague, in 2008.