Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf (1959) is on the threshold of an important year: his most recent photographic series, Hope, Grief and Rain appear to have given him an international breakthrough. His work has been criticized since the 1980s as being produced merely for its shock value, thus eliminating it as art. But now that important art dealers and museums all over the world are showing his works, and huge crowds are visiting his expositions, it seems as if his years of hard work will finally lead to serious recognition. Yet this is occurring, of all times, in a period of his life in which Erwin Olaf is contending with emphysema, a debilitating disease that obliges him to deal cautiously with his energy reserves. Whether his body can keep up with his work pace is uncertain.

Erwin Olaf, on Beauty and Fall

Stylised, largely French-spoken homage to Luchino Visconti about a 19th century young noblewoman who is surrounded by people from the moment she awakes. Resigned, she undergoes the morning ritual, in which three servants clothe her and do her hair. During the day, she grows increasingly paranoid. The people she sees remain unnoticed by the others. Or is she really watched?

The Evocation of Sadness

In a large open and light shower room a boy is washing himself, posing like he is acting in a shower gel commercial. With exaggerated movements, his hands slide all over his skin with the foam pouring plentifully down his body, as if this scene sprang from someone else’s imagination.