Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf has died at 64. He shot themes from homosexual nightlife to the royal household

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Erwin Olaf, an acclaimed Dutch photographer whose work documented matters starting from homosexual nightlife in Amsterdam to portraits of the Dutch royal household, has died. He was 64.

Olaf’s extremely stylized pictures, with lighting usually influenced by Dutch grasp painters Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer, had been exhibited at galleries around the globe throughout a profession spanning a long time.

His web site carried an announcement saying that Olaf just lately underwent a lung transplant.

“The restoration appeared to be going very effectively. He all of the sudden grew to become unwell on Wednesday morning and CPR was to no avail. We will miss him terribly,” it added.

Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum, paid tribute in an announcement on the Amsterdam museum’s web site.

“Erwin Olaf noticed magnificence in each particular person. He’s of historic significance due to his activism and position within the LHBTIQ+ neighborhood,” Dibbits mentioned.

He referred to as Olaf “an artist with monumental drive and with a really nice eye for element. The Rijksmuseum acquired its core assortment in 2018 and thought of Erwin Olaf a honest good friend. We’ll miss him.”

Olaf was made a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands after 500 of his works had been added to the Rijksmuseum assortment.

He labored in promoting — as soon as portraying nuns in denims for a clothes firm — in addition to on this planet of excessive artwork and portraiture.

Through the years, he shot portraits of King Willem-Alexander and his household and in 2013 he designed the Dutch facet of a brand new euro coin bearing a picture of the king when Willem-Alexander acceded to the throne.

In March, Willem-Alexander awarded Olaf with the Dutch Royal Home’s Medal of Honor for Artwork and Science. It honored him for “utilizing a daring method to portraiture to handle themes resembling ethnicity, sexual range and financial inequality.”

In a response to his dying, Willem-Alexander and Maxima mentioned the Netherlands “has misplaced a singular, exceptionally proficient photographer and an excellent artist.”

“We are going to miss his friendship,” they added in an announcement posted on social media. “His work lives on and continues to be intriguing and transferring.”