A golden sheen covers the flawless bodies of Erwin Olaf photography series Fall (2008), but far from enhancing the physical beauty of his subjects, the hue seems instead to impart a vague pallor. Olaf’s work has a strong sense of narrative, although the viewer is presented with only a fraction of the story from which to extrapolate the circumstances of the subjects’ disquiet. A young woman in the portrait Nikola gazes with what appears to be disdain at something out of shot, and we wonder if she is in the process of removing her clothing for some distasteful act, or dressing again at its culmination. The muscular Joshka is another ostensibly perfect portrait subject, but is there something causing him to clutch his body in pain?
Fall, punctuated by stark still lifes, is on show for the 6th European Month of Photography 2014 at Berlin’s Bar Barbette, Karl-Marx Allee, until 30 October. A concurrent group exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, entitled Memory Lab: The Sentimental Turn / Photography Challenges History includes Olaf´s carbon prints from the series BERLIN (2013).
Erwin Olaf
Fall – Nikola, 2008
Lambda Print, 141 x 106 cm
© Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Berlin, Fechthalle Westend 11th of July, 2012
© Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Berlin, Porträt 05 – 9th of July, 2012 © Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Fall – Still Life 1, 2008
Lambda Print, 141 x 106 cm
© Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Berlin, Porträt 01 – 22nd of April, 2012 © Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Fall – Joschka, 2008
Lambda Print, 141 x 106 cm
© Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
Erwin Olaf
Berlin, Olympiastadion, Westend Selbstportrait
25th of April, 2012
© Erwin Olaf
courtesy Wagner + Partner Berlin
