Erwin Olaf: Silver

by William Elia, Kees van Twist (Director, Forword), George Hall (Translator)

Erwin Olaf, one of the best know and most over-the-top Dutch photographers of today--think David LaChapelle crossed with Playboy)--lives a passionate, lusty affair with life, enjoying it to the fullest extent, a true gastronome of the art of living. His oeuvre stands as a manifestation of this very passion and of his very genuine engagement with his subjects. Over the last 25 years, he has evolved from a photographer who captures reality to a director who creates it; either way, the depicted reality is one filled with humor, imagination, sexuality, and exuberance, raising issues of freedom, beauty, loneliness, and difference. A master who can generate his own, perverse world through autonomous photographic series, grandiose parties, and film projects alike, he is also hypercritical, an artist from whom nothing escapes. Thus his fictions are convincing, his images full of bygone days, fairytales, and dreams, populated by historical figures, elves, dwarves, lunatics, and creatures that defy easy description.

Genres: Photography, Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2003

Reviews

[El Dubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really great imagery is here, but I could have done without the super overblown art text. Seriously. He's a photographer and a talented artist, not the Second Coming.