Dusk & Dawn

From 11 June to 12 September 2010, the Hermitage Amsterdam exhibits a photo series comprising twelve works by Erwin Olaf entitled DUSK & DAWN.

Frances Benjamin Johnston

Olaf's inspiration for this series was the work of photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. From 1899 to 1900, she photographed African-American pupils of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. Through her sophisticated aesthetic style, Johnston shows the world that, despite their dark past as slaves, a bright future is within these pupils' reach.

In the beginning, there was DUSK

DUSK is set at the beginning of the twentieth century and portrays an upper middle class, dark skinned family. The series gives the impression that the enlightened end of a long road to a liberated world has been found: a social paradise.

And then came DAWN

In DAWN, Olaf shows the same scenes, only this time the setting is Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century using an entirely pale palette. Olaf stumbled upon his inspiration for this work one morning when a white woman and her son entered the opulent breakfast room at his hotel one morning. Olaf saw the counterpart of DUSK take shape before his eyes. And so DAWN became the aesthetic mirror to DUSK.

Olaf, photographer extraordinaire

Erwin Olaf (1959) is renowned all over the globe as one of the world's most extraordinary modern photographers. Using sublime irony, he can lay open our illusion of freedom. This applies to both his visually confrontational series and his more recent, more serene work, in which he demonstrates how we are imprisoned by our self-censorship.

DUSK & DAWN can be visited free of charge by visitors to Hermitage Amsterdam upon displaying a valid admission ticket.