Erwin Olaf - Freedom

by Erwin Olaf (Photographer), Rein Wolfs (Contributor), Hans Van Manen (Contributor)

Erwin Olaf (1959–2023) is regarded as one of the most influential photographic artists in the Netherlands. His visual language is instantly recognizable: meticulously composed, technically refined, and charged with meaning. With a sharp eye for lighting and mise-en-scène, he was able to bring aesthetics and commitment together.

Olaf was both an artist and a fighter. He stood up for the freedom to be who you are. His fight was waged not only with his camera, but also through film, sculpture, and the queer parties he organized.

The publication Erwin Olaf – Freedom offers an in-depth survey of the full reach of his rich, varied and groundbreaking work, from the early 1980s until just before his death. It is an indispensable book for anyone who views art as a catalyst for change.

With contributions by Charlotte Cotton, Gemma Rolls-Bentley, Jonathan Turner, Rein Wolfs and others, as well as conversations with Taco Dibbits, Hans van Manen, Charl Landvreugd and Shirley den Hartog and Els Wuyts.

This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from October 11, 2025, to March 1, 2026.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2025

About the author

Erwin Olaf was an internationally exhibiting artist whose diverse practice centered around society’s marginalized individuals, including women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019 Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands after 500 works from his oeuvre were added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Taco Dibbits, Rijksmuseum director, called Olaf “one of the most important photographers of the final quarter of the 20th century”.

In 2018, Olaf completed a triptych of monumental photographic and filmic tableaux portraying periods of seismic change in major world cities, and the citizens embraced and othered by their urban progress. Like much of his work, it is contextualized by complex race relations, the devastation of economic divisions, and the complications of sexuality. Olaf has maintained an activistic approach to equality throughout his 40-year career after starting out documenting pre-AIDS gay liberation in Amsterdam’s nightlife in the 1980s.

A bold and sometimes controversial approach has earned the artist a number of prestigious collaborations, from Vogue and Louis Vuitton, to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. He served as the official portrait artist for the Dutch royal family in 2017, and designed the national side of the euro coins for King Willem-Alexander in 2013. He has been awarded the Netherlands’ prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award, as well as Photographer of the Year at the International Color Awards, and Kunstbeeld magazine’s Dutch Artist of the Year.

Erwin Olaf has exhibited worldwide, including Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile. In the spring of 2019, Olaf’s work was the subject of a double exhibition at Kunstmuseum The Hague and The Hague Museum of Photography, as well as a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Center of Photography and an exhibition at The Rijkmuseum of Amsterdam. In 2021, he will mount solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle München, Germany; the Suwon Museum of Art, Suwon, Korea. Olaf’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, such as the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, United States; Art Progressive Collection, United States, and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia.