Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf was born in 1959 in Hilversum, The Netherlands, and passed away in 2023 in Groningen, The Netherlands. He lived and worked in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

 

During his lifetime Olaf was an internationally renowned artist whose diverse practice centred around society’s marginalized individuals including women, people of colour, and the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, following the acquisition of 500 works by in the Rijksmuseum, Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands. On the occasion Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, called Olaf “one of the most important photographers of the final quarter of the 20th century”.

In celebration of Erwin Olaf’s 60thyear and long collaboration with the gallery, Hamiltons presented photographs of women from across Olaf’s career. Hamiltons Gallery owner Tim Jefferies selected these works from Olaf’s oeuvre of 40 years, comprising photographs from Chessmen (1987-88), Squares (1983-2018), Blacks (1990), Mature (1999), Fashion Victims (2000), Royal Blood (2000), Hope (2005), Grief (2007), Hotel (2010), Keyhole (2011-13), Vogue (2012), Berlin (2012), Jewish (2013), Waiting (2014), Catwalk (2015), Skin Deep (2015), Shanghai (2017) and Palm Springs (2018), and so encompassing women of all ages, skin tones, body shapes and attitudes. Olaf believes that he can photograph women with more clarity than men, as without distractions he can be more precise in expressing his feelings. “With female talents I can be fairly critical and say exactly what I want them to do, whereas beautiful boys can throw stardust in my eyes… It is very inspiring to work with the sensitivity of women – I love the emotion that is layered under the skin and in the eyes and it is one of my joys to work with women in this way... They are my muses in my work.” (Erwin Olaf, 2019).