Erwin Olaf Artist’s Talk
Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf spoke at Aperture Gallery and Bookstore in the fall of 2008, on the occasion of the release of his self-titled Aperture monograph.
Inspired by Olaf’s new series “Hotel, Dusk and Dawn,” currently on view at New York photography gallery Hasted Hunt Kraeutler, we went into our video archive full of the many wonderful talks, lectures and conversations with photographers, curators and scholars, that have taken place at Aperture over the years, to bring you this in-depth look into Olaf’s work.
In this edited excerpt Olaf compares the orchestration of his complex shoots and the creation of his images of fantasy, similarly to the work of a film director. In the aftermath of 9/11 Olaf constructed several nostalgic photographic series depicting an”America” in the tradition of artist Norman Rockwell and 1960′s glamour. Olaf used this work to explore several psychological themes that commented on both the past and the present. Olaf also talks about what he values in portraits, describing how he captures intimate and candid images of his models while they are in character.
For the full artist’s talk click here:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
