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”.