The origin of Olaf’s artistic approach to photography is the versatility of his sources of inspiration in his early years: the music of David Bowie, the visual arts of Andy Warhol, among others, the painting by Yves Klein, and the Italian and German film, by Visconti and Fassbinder.
The early photos of Erwin Olaf sparkle with the powerful, rebellious energy of an angry young man, portrayed in the black and white images of his first series Chessmen from the 80s, which are bizarre and extravagant. His portraits, sm-photos, and the portraits of the wild nightlife were extremely confrontational. It was his overwhelming debut, full of expressive freedom, associated with the discovery of his homosexual orientation.
Robert Mapplethorpe photographic sources of inspiration, and Joel Peter Witkin, clearly trickle through in this…
