art candy

Photographer Erwin Olaf’s ‘Hotel’ Nudes

Dutch artist Erwin Olaf is presenting two sets of spellbinding, provocative photographs at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler through March 20: the contrasting series “Dawn/Dusk,” which mixes color and black-and-white photography (a departure for Olaf); and “Hotel,” a collection of seedy, melancholic images of disaffected, doll-like, and generally nude women positioned around noirish hotel rooms. Olaf claims he was inspired by the work of nineteenth-century photographer Frances B. Johnson for “Dusk/Dawn.” The influence is echoed in the re-created period atmosphere and the focus on African-American subjects, and extended in “Dawn,” which focuses on pale-skinned subjects in stark, blindingly white spaces.

From “Dusk.”
From “Dusk.”
From “Dusk.”
From “Dusk.”
From “Dusk.”
From “Dusk.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Dawn.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel.”
From “Hotel”
From “Hotel.”
Photographer Erwin Olaf’s ‘Hotel’ Nudes