{"id":1602652,"date":"2025-11-26T12:27:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1602652"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:27:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:27:44","slug":"interview-hans-van-manen-remembers-photographer-erwin-olaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/11\/interview-hans-van-manen-remembers-photographer-erwin-olaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Hans van Manen Remembers Photographer Erwin Olaf"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dance in Close-Up, Hans van Manen – Thinking about my friend Robert<\/em>, 2022. \u00a9 Estate Erwin Olaf, courtesy Gallery Ron Mandos Amsterdam<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is currently hosting \u201cFreedom,\u201d the largest-ever retrospective of Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf (1959-2023). Spanning four decades, the exhibition reveals an artist whose meticulously staged images transformed photography into theater, charged with beauty, tension and control. From early portraits of nightlife and queerness to his later reflections on power and vulnerability, Olaf\u2019s lens captured both the poise and fragility of human presence.<\/p>\n

For Olaf, dance was inseparable from photography. The turning point came in 1984 when he met Hans van Manen, already an internationally acclaimed choreographer and photographer, who immediately recognized the younger artist\u2019s instinct for composition. Their meeting marked the beginning of a lasting friendship and artistic dialogue. Dance offered Olaf a language of discipline and precision: each movement, like each frame, had to be deliberate. His extreme close-ups of dancers turned flesh into sculpture, revealing the strain, elegance and sheer labor of performance.<\/p>\n

To coincide with the exhibition, Observer met Hans van Manen to revisit those early encounters and the creative partnership that shaped their practices. In our conversation, he reflects on their exchange, the lessons of light and the choreography behind every photograph.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to the start: when did you first meet Erwin Olaf and what struck you about him?<\/b><\/p>\n

More than 40 years ago. Erwin was working as a journalist for Sek<\/i>, a queer magazine then. He came to photograph me for an interview, and we started talking right away. The following month, I photographed him. We had no money at the time, but I still remember when he got his first Hasselblad camera. That\u2019s a big moment for any photographer. From then on, we had a fantastic relationship. We talked about photography constantly.<\/p>\n

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