Olaf Otto Becker

Edition

Portfolio of seven Archival Pigment Prints on Archival Paper 20,3 x 25,4 cm (8 x 10 inches)
printed by Olaf Otto Becker in an edition of 25, numbered and signed
edited by Petra Giloy-Hirtz and Ira Stehmann
curators Munich, 2009

Olaf Otto Becker

Taken in the clear light of the midnight sun, and therefore almost shadowless, these photographs offer breathtaking views of an untouched landscape from a remote part of our planet. Olaf Otto Becker (*1959 in Travemünde) brings us images of overwhelming beauty, the result of his adventurous journeys in a rubber raft across the icy seas of Greenland. Like Under the Nordic Light, his series from Iceland, the photographs possess a certain melancholy and stillness reminiscent of the grandeur of Romantic landscape painting. At the same time, the outlook of an unperturbed explorer and his recording of exact location when photographing turns them into testimonies to a time when an increasingly warm climate is precipitating the disappearance of the glaciers. In this way, the images record the artist’s awe at the beauty of creation—as well as the dangers facing it.

Petra Giloy-Hirtz

Biography

1959born in Travemünde/Germany
1989Abschluss Dipl. Kommunikationsdesign Augsburg, Schwerpunkt Fotografie
1989/1991Freelanced designer
seit 2003ausschließlich fotografisch orientierte Projekte, freier Mitarbeiter des New York Times Magazine

Solo Exhibitions

2011Stadthaus Ulm
2009The National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen
2009Cohen Amador Gallery New York
2009Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen
2009Northbound, Alfred Ehrhard Stiftung Köln
2008Galerie f.5.6 München
2008Cohen Amador Gallery, New York
2007Gallery Stephen Cohen, Los Angeles
2007Galerie Münsterland
2006Cohen Amador Gallery, New York
2006Galerie Hartmann, München
2005Rotonda, Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln
2004Galerie AV Ludwigsburg
2003Galerie Hartmann, München

Group Exhibitions

2009Gratwanderung, Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren
2009AIPAD New York
2009B-sides, Galerie f5,6
2008Keine Angst, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
2008New York Photofestival
2007Museum for Photography, Reykjavík
2007Art Cologne
2006Ebersberger Kunstverein
2005Paris Photo, Galerie Thomas Zander
2005Stuttgarter Fotosommer 2005
2004Städtische Galerie Überlingen
2003Paris Photo, Schaden.com, Köln

Corporate Collections

2008Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York
2006Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas USA
2004Städtische Galerie Überlingen

Awards

2008Lead Award
2007Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 2008 für „Broken line“
2006Förderung der VG Bild und des Kulturfond der BRD für Projekt „Broken line“
2006„Unter dem Licht des Nordens“ auf der Liste der besten Bücher 2006 in Arles
2006„Unter dem Licht des Nordens“ Auswahltitel „Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 2006“
2005BjV-Preis 2005

Publications

2011Under the Nordic Light, mit einem Text von Petra Giloy-Hirtz, Hatje Cantz
2009Above Zero, Hatje Cantz
2009Contemporary German & International Landscape Photography
2008New York Times Magazine, Bolivia
2008Keine Angst, Exhibition Catalog Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
2008Verschwindende Landschaften, Dumont
2008Visual Leaders 2008
2007Broken Line , Hatje Cantz
2006Exhibition Catalog Ebersberger Kunstvereins
2006Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography
2005Olaf Otto Becker „Unter dem Licht des Nordens“
Verlag Schaden.com Köln,
2005Exhibition Catalog „Stuttgarter Fotosommer 2005“
2004Exhibition Catalog Museums Überlingen
"Wasser in der Kunst vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart"