Subversive, sensual and shocking: Erwin Olaf’s larger than life portraits – in pictures

Marvel at Dutch photographer’s suggestive Champagne explosions and naked cyclists! But Olaf’s work could also be intensely personal …

Saskia, 2001

Erwin Olaf: Bigger Than Life is a celebration of the Dutch photographer who died in 2023. In one of Olaf’s last conversations with his studio manager Shirley den Hartog, he said that he wished to be remembered as ‘bigger than life’. This show pays homage to his wish, presenting important works from across the artist’s four-decade career, alongside a selection of self-portraits. Erwin Olaf: Bigger Than Life is at Hamilton’s Gallery, London until 1 February 2025

Portrait #8, Hope, 2005

Influenced by his own travels and accompanying feelings of transience and anomie, Olaf’s models often gaze into the distance and evoke an uneasy, disconnected sense of mystery. Their cinematic nature reflects Olaf’s evolution as an artist, leaning towards more complex narratives

Joy, Squares, 1985

Influenced by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Helmut Newton, Olaf’s early works were marked by a subverting of social norms, challenging of taboos and exploration of sexuality in modern society. Olaf started his career while living in a squat in Amsterdam and documenting 1980s’ nightlife, but soon explored his own series and subjects in both black and white and colour. During his lifetime Olaf was internationally renowned as an artist whose diverse practice centred around society’s marginalised individuals including women, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ community

The Board Room, Rain, 2004

As his career progressed, he began shooting surrealist tableaux style images, adopting the role of both director and photographer, opting for a cinematic style embedded with stillness which seeks to express the sitter’s genuine emotions and neuroses

The Kitchen, Hope, 2005

Olaf’s highly theatrical mise-en-scenes recall the early 1960s, underscored by a diluted colour palette. He seeks inspiration from this period of major social changes, the rise of feminism, a prospering middle class, globalisation, and the haunting influence of television in nouveau-riche American households

I Wish, from the Series I Wish, I Am, I Will Be, 2009

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, Erwin Olaf turned his lens on himself, creating a deeply personal series of self-portraits to mark this milestone. Titled Self Portrait – 50 Years Old, the series captures the artist in three distinct ways: how he looks now, how he wishes he looked and how he envisions himself in the future. Confronted with the accelerating progression of his long-standing emphysema, Erwin chose to process his feelings through his art rather than through therapy

11.05am, April Fool, 2020

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Erwin, who was vulnerable due to his emphysema, felt a deep anger and urgency. He believed that, as an artist, responding to societal crises through art was not just a choice, but an obligation. On the second day of the lockdown in the Netherlands, Erwin mobilised his crew to capture his raw emotional response to the unfolding crisis. Using a guerilla-style approach, he documented his state of mind in the early days of the pandemic, with the white hat he wore symbolising humanity’s foolish belief in its ability to control the world

Cindy C, 78, from the series Mature, 1999

‘The outside part of getting older is the skin’, said Olaf about his Mature series. ‘But with the help of make-up, wigs and revealing clothing, plus a bit of computer manipulation, I changed these women into actresses.’ While presenting a satire on the commercially limited concept of sensuality, including the way in which society tends to overlook the sexual urges of the elderly, these images are neither cynical nor exploitative. Each portrait shows a confident woman clearly in control of her own destiny

Reclining Nude, No5, from the series Skin Deep, 2015

In Skin Deep, Olaf celebrates the timeless beauty of the human body and its centrality throughout the history of art, particularly in the tradition of depicting the nude. ‘Nothing fascinates me more than human skin,’ he said. ‘Smooth and often seemingly hairless, it has been a source of inspiration since I first held a camera. The way light and shade play on this, the largest organ of our body, continues to fascinate me’

Keyhole, 2015

These images stand as Olaf’s refutation of the overwhelming saturation of sex and desire inherent in our modern mass-market, mass-media society. Olaf was driven by the power of storytelling and the emotion images can provoke. He overcame initial controversy through sheer mastery of the medium, solidifying himself as one of the most important visual artists to emerge from Holland

Huai Hai 116, Shanghai, 2017

Shanghai is often seen as an oasis of relative freedom and emancipation in a country with a one-party system. Young women here are often regarded as independent and deserving of social positions that would be hard to attain in more conservative regions. Yet after working closely with many of these women, it became clear to Olaf that, despite their social advancement, a significant distance remains between them and many men. This tension – between progress and isolation – became the central theme of the series. See more of Erwin Olaf’s Shanghai series here

Olympia Stadion Westend, Selbstporträt, 2012

While working on his Berlin series, which explores the rise of right-wing populism and its threat to European democracies, Erwin Olaf captured a deeply personal self-portrait at the Olympic Stadium in the West End. As he reviewed the images between shots, Olaf realised that this moment would be his farewell photo if he did not survive his long emphysema. The image, which shows him walking towards the light with camera in hand, became a powerful symbol of his legacy. It was later used at his funeral in the Western church in Amsterdam