The most important influence on Olaf’s work was Robert Mapplethorpe, the paragon of studio photography, whom Olaf met while Mapplethorpe was visiting Amsterdam. He was especially taken with Mapplethorpe’s use of square format images, a technique also employed by Peter Hujar and Diane Arbus for their portrait work.
]]>by Nina Siegal
AMSTERDAM.- Erwin Olaf, a contemporary Dutch photographer known for the precision of his staged photographs of both countercultural figures and Dutch royalty, died Wednesday in Groningen, Netherlands. He was 64.
Shirley den Hartog, his business partner, said the death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of a recent lung transplant. Olaf had struggled for years with hereditary emphysema, she said.
Olaf began his career as a photojournalist documenting the gay liberation movement in the 1980s before becoming one of the first photographers in the Netherlands to stage photos using theatrical costuming and sets. His subjects were often nonconforming to both gender stereotypes and cultural norms — people with unusual bodies, alternative lifestyles or a penchant for bondage gear.
“He made explicit images or very suggestive images that became iconic,” said Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum, which owns and displays Olaf’s work. The photographs, he added, “showed to a larger public how important it is to let people be who they are, and to let them express themselves.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Olaf’s work evolved over 40 years to embrace high-end studio and fashion photography as well as formal portraiture. The Dutch royal family commissioned him to shoot their portraits several times.
He became recognized internationally as one of the Netherlands’ three most important contemporary photographers — along with Rineke Dijkstra and Anton Corbijn. To the Dutch he was seen as a national treasure.
“We consider him a ‘Hollandse meester,’” a Dutch master, said Mattie Boom, photography curator at the Rijksmuseum, the national museum in Amsterdam. “He was making paintings with the camera.”
Erwin Olaf Springveld was born July 2, 1959, to Simon Jacobus Springveld, a sales manager for an office supplies company, and Lydia van ’t Hoff, a homemaker, in Hilversum, about 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam. He graduated from the School for Journalism in Utrecht, intending to become a documentary photographer.
He moved to Amsterdam when he was 19 and lived in a squat, a building taken over by artists, while volunteering for the Dutch magazine Sek, the official publication of the gay and lesbian activist organization COC Nederland.
He got his first paid job as a photographer in 1984 chronicling Amsterdam nightlife and the gay community with his Nikon 35 mm camera for Vinyl, a new wave music magazine. He jettisoned his last name, Springveld, and went by Erwin Olaf thereafter.
“He started off being a major photographer of the gay scene, but that was too limited for Erwin,” said Wim van Sinderen, his former editor at Vinyl who later became a curator of the Fotomuseum Den Haag, in The Hague, where he exhibited Olaf’s work. “He was hot then, and he continued to be very hot for a long time. He managed to keep up his reputation throughout 40 years.”
Image © Erwin Olaf, “Porträt XI” (2020, From the series Im Wald)
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Paul ('Bonehead') Arthurs (1965-), Musician; rhythm guitarist.
Liam Gallagher (1972-), Musician, singer.
Noel David Thomas Gallagher (1967-), Musician, singer, songwriter.
Paul ('Guigsy') McGuigan (1971-), Musician; bassist.
Alan White (1972-), Musician; drummer.
See Matthew's portrait of Oasis and more online in National Portrait Gallery
]]>‘Stephen Fry has a halo encircling his head. This photo is cropped so tight you cannot see it, which is why he looks so pissed off.
He’s surrounded by an invisible bureaucratic machine, yet he has such a kind heart. Sometimes the strict machine is entirely inefficient.’ - Matthew R Lewis.
This portrait was one of the last Matthew took. It was taken during a break in recording Q.I. at the Southbank Studios.It's a bit of a long story which started when Matthew decided to write to Mr Fry under the pseudonym of Edita Wellington...
'Friday, 28 September 2007
Dear Mr. Fry,
My husband and I love doing crosswords and playing ‘Scrabble’ after supper: both of us are wordsmiths at heart. However, we do always stop play when it’s time to tune in to the television for your program Q.I.
We are hoping you can explain to us the following mystery. Why does ‘almost’ mean ‘not quite’, when ‘all’ means ‘everything’, and ‘most’ implies ‘abundant’? The two words, ‘all’ and ‘most’ seem to take on an opposite meaning when combined.'...
..'We’ve tried our etymological dictionary and searched The Oxford Dictionary without success. We’ve trawled the inter-net as well, but that too is of no help.
We hope you receive this letter so we might look forward to a reply, however brief your explanation. We know how busy you must be.
Yours faithfully,
Edita Wellington.'
If you asked Matthew why he chose Edita Wellington as his pseudonym, he'd probably suggest that going to see Noel might help you down the road to the library.
There's no money in it. This detective work is about having fun.
]]>It was over twenty years ago. And yes it seems like yesterday. With part of an old clock, a length of gold cord, a piece of latex and few rolls of film Matthew and I spent the afternoon together making photographs.
On the computer I played around with the images. We made some prints and that was that.
Each image is from a Limited Edition of 365
Fine Art C-Type print on Fuji Matt stock
Provided with Certificate of Authenticity
The image is 10" x 10" centred on 12" x 12" paper.
ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE is a generous culture and dynamic economy in support of artists and makers.
The concept is a simple one, post images of your work to sell for NO MORE (can be less) than $200 (£200, €200, A$300, C$300, ¥20000) each (not including shipping.) Anyone can then buy the work. Every time you reach $1000 (A$1500, C$1500, ¥100,000) of sales you pledge to buy another artist/s work for $200. (A$300, C$300, ¥20000)
So make a pledge and post your work using #artistsupportpledge and follow the #. keep updated on news and further opportunities @artistsupportpledge and www.artistsupportpledge.com
Artist Support Pledge is a Not for Profit Company (12613409) ©️and ™️ 2020 Matthew Burrows, all rights reserved.
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SIR HAROLD ACTON O.B.E.
AESTHETE AND PHILANTHROPIST, 1911 - 1994
‘Alas! I am no Narcissus,’ retorted Harold Acton in a letter when he saw this photograph.
Like Atlas with the weight of the whole world of art upon his back, he told me stories of a bygone age. Indebted to the legacy of Oscar Wilde, the author of ‘MEMOIRS OF AN AESTHETE’ was a real Queen.
He lived in a real palace. He had a plethora of bedrooms with beautiful paintings and unfortunate moth-eaten curtains.
‘The beds are not prepared, so sorry we can’t ask you to stay for the night.’
I asked about his meeting with Genet, the Saint.
‘Genet, that vagrant, I didn’t trust him an inch!’
With that we bid each other farewell politely and I slept on a park bench, bitten by mosquitoes, in the centre of Florence.
- Matthew R Lewis -
Matthew visited Sir Harold Acton with his sister Hannah Fothergill, and a letter of introduction from her father, R A C Fothergill.
Evelyn Waugh based, in part, the character of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited on Acton.
See this and other of Matthew's portrait online at The National Portrait Gallery
]]>Boy With Syringe Lemon And Spoon
This portrait could be a tribute to Caravaggio’s “Bacchus’ or William Burroughs' novel ‘The Naked Lunch’. Unfortunately, Caravaggio was not available to see it, but William Burroughs admired it very much and he thoughtfully signed it ‘For a friend’. It also caught the eye of Derek Jarman. He speaks of the portrait in his diary ‘Modern Nature’, but it was first published in ‘Gai Pied’, in an article entitled ‘Smog Dollies and Smack Dealers’ in 1987. The boy posed for his portrait early one morning, with light reflected from a mirror, in his bedroom - not in a studio as many people presume. I remember we played Sid Vicious’ version of ‘My Way’ on the stereo, as he thought about the arrangement of his syringe, lemon and spoon, carefully observing his reflection across the room. - Matthew R Lewis.
]]>This week a friend who travelled to America with Matthew in the early 80s sent me some wonderful portraits that he took of Matthew. Thank you Giancarlo.
]]>Thank you for your letter of April 11,...
With my best wishes,
Roman Polanski
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Dear Mr. Lewis,
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Grayson Perry, Potter.
Matthew met Grayson in the late 80's.
Thirty years or so later, and ten years after Matthew's death they were reconnected.
Five of Matthew's portraits of Grayson were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, donated to mark Matthew's tenth anniversary.
Synchronicity.
Grayson's exhibition - 'Grayson Perry The Pre-Therapy Years' was a huge success and seen in Bath, York and Norwich.
Matthew's portrait of Grayson as Claire sitting in her studio reconnects two very special, beautiful and talented artists.
From Matthew:
'Grayson works very hard and he is very sensitive, even as a small boy, but mostly he is a shy girl called Claire.
Grayson is a transvestite and this year he won the much-coveted Turner Prize, twenty thousand pounds! Now, I made this photograph about twenty years ago. And ever since that day Grayson has worked and worked and worked. It sounds like a lot of money but take it from me, it's not. Stretched over twenty years twenty thousand probably works out at about five pounds a day. Great Artists are always underpaid. It's a historical thing
Nevertheless, I'm glad he is the winner.'
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