Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf was a prolific Dutch photographer known internationally for his theatrical photographs of countercultural figures.
 
Born in 1959 in Hilversum, the Netherlands, Olaf lived and worked in Amsterdam until his death in 2023. Olaf was a photojournalist, documenting the gay liberation movement and nightlife in 1980s Amsterdam, prior to developing his personal practice. Influenced by Robert Mapplethorpe, Olaf created what Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum described as explicit and suggestive images that became iconic. Throughout his 40-year career, Olaf’s diverse practice remained rooted in activism, spotlighting those who are usually marginalised, such as women, people of colour, and the LGBTQ+ community.
 
Later in his career Olaf’s practice and subject became increasingly varied. He began to explore portraiture and landscapes influenced by contemporary painters and filmmakers, creating images that provoke feelings of loneliness, sadness, and tension. Olaf was commissioned by the Dutch Royal Family multiple times to take their portraits, designing the national side of the Euro coin for King Willem-Alexander in 2013 and served as the official portrait artist for the Dutch Royal Family in 2017. Near the end of his life, he created a triptych of self-portraits, I Wish, I Am, I Will Be documenting his ageing and illness that gained worldwide notoriety.
 
In 2019, Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. That same year 500 works from his oeuvre were added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. His posthumous retrospective Erwin Olaf–Freedom (2025/26) was the most attended exhibition in the Stedelijk’s history. Olaf’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.