Erwin Olaf

Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf delivers a velvet-gloved emotional impact with his highly stylized mode of image making. His work offers a blend of mid-century modern and noir aesthetics seen through a contemporary, fashion-inflected lens. The ambience of the series presented in this volume - the first time these three bodies of work have been presented as a whole - is truly enigmatic and enticing. Olaf seduces the viewer via a mannered, restrained palette that is replete with faded avocado greens, golden-hued oranges, and subtle lilacs. Each richly colored and sleekly composed image offers a sly reinterpretation of Norman Rockwell-like iconography and characters, manifesting a nostalgia that both burlesques and wryly celebrates America of the 1950s and '60s. As a whole, the material investigates what critic Jonathan Turner defines as "Olaf's recent fascination with the visual representation of such emotions of loss, loneliness, and quiet despair. . . . [He] plays games with the idea of cold reality versus cruel artifice, capturing that precise moment when innocence, hope, and joy are lost."\n\nERWIN OLAF (born in Hilversum, the Netherlands, 1959) is a commercial and fine art photographer. He graduated from the Utrecht School for Journalism, in 1980, with a degree in newspaper journalism and photojournalism. Olaf has earned seve-ral Silver Lions for his commercial work, which is increasingly sought after by magazines such as the New York Times Magazine, London Sunday Times, and Vanity Fair. He is represented by Reflex New Art Gallery, Amsterdam, and Hasted Hunt, New York. A solo exhibition of his work will open at the FotoMuseum Antwerp in early 2008.