Dutch photographer captures telling moments in Hong Kong show
Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's fine art pieces may well share the lush and polished look of his commercial assignments, but there's no mistaking the subtle emotions in his works.
ERWIN OLAF
Art Statements
Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's fine art pieces may well share the lush and polished look of his commercial assignments, but there's no mistaking the subtle emotions in his works.
From capturing the split-second look of models while they blinked, to bringing out the complicated feelings of waiting in solitude, the former photojournalist has been showing an interest in overlooked moments in human existence since he got serious with his art in the late 1980s.
"It's more the choreography of the body and the distance that we take," the 55-year-old Olaf says of his interest in the subject, before declaring himself a long-time admirer of modern classical ballet.
"When you're in an airport or a restaurant, you observe people; you can see that when people have shoulders like that or a face like that, it's sadness. We communicate by the way we look at each other, by the way we don't look at each other, and by the way we turn a little bit away from each other."