Erwin Olaf and moments of stillness…

  • Erwin Olaf-Grief-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-4Erwin Olaf-Grief-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-2Well, talking of populuxe-esque aesthetics (see Day #71/365a)…

    Erwin Olaf often seems to take the technical proficiency and some of the aesthetics / visual arrest of fashion and a certain type of high-end creative commercial photography and turns it towards his own ends – in a way that although different in immediate visual impressions and palettes, isn’t that far removed from the likes of David Lachapelle or possibly Nick Clements and his recreation / simulacra of previous eras – both of whom have also extensively worked in creative commercial fields.

    Erwin Olaf-Grief-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity

    It is these four photographs in particular that I am drawn to, from his Grief, Hope, Rain trilogy – they seem to be a stylised, even stylistically idealised casting back, recreation and simulacra of a previous eras aesthetics and a point in history at which a nation and individuals heard of the death of their leader (the early 1960s and the passing of Mr Kennedy in particular, which Erwin Olaf has said that he has a strong, haunting personal memory of).

    Erwin Olaf-Grief-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-3

    Within them Erwin Olaf uses his tools of fashion or commercial aesthetics overtones to create an actuality of emotion, substantiality and reality has wandered into these imagined worlds and points in time…

    Visit Erwin Olaf here and towards the fine art world here (tread gently, some of his work is a little more grown-up, shall we say).

    Peruse his books here (the volumes simply titled Erwin Olaf and Erwin Olaf Volume II may well be the ones to wander towards if the Hope, Grief, Rain work catches your eye and interest).

     

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