Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf
Erwin Olaf
Photographs: Erwin Olaf
Text: Alasdair Foster
Publisher: Aperture
128 pages
Pictures: 65
Year: 2008
Comments: Blue linen hardcover with picture tipped-in, 340 x 260 mm. First edition, 2008. Text in english. The photobook comes with a DVD containing a selection of five films by 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."
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."
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