Photography Collection

© Olaf Otto Becker, Gletscherzunge, Island (Glacier Tongue, Iceland), 1999, Courtesy of the Stephen Cohen Gallery

The Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles is going to exhibit Olaf Otto Becker - Nordic Lights, the artist's color photographs of Iceland, from April 26 to June 9. Olaf Otto Becker was born in Travemunde, a seaside resort in Germany, in 1959. He began as a painter trained in the 19^th Century Romantic style, but turned to photography, earning a degree from the University of Applied Sciences for Design in Augsburg and subsequently, to the study of philosophy at the Ludwig?Maximilians?University in Munich.
Becker photographs in color, always at night. The long exposures and northern night’s flat light allows the artist to produce images of haunting beauty in deeply saturated colors. A bright green in the Nordic sun turns into a deep verdant green in a Becker photograph. The atmosphere is palpable. Led by intuition, Becker is drawn to primeval images of land and water that resonate subconsciously. He will photograph and re-photograph a site until perfect. In four years, he has covered more than 11,000 miles of Icelandic terrain and made only one hundred color 8 x 10 negatives. The images that result are diverse, ranging from precipitous waterfalls and endless expanses of sea to gravel construction sites and concrete dams. Carefully constructed, yet never artificial, it is here that he brings the viewer to a place of deep contemplation where time stands still.
Becker has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in Europe and his book, Under the Nordic Light, was short-listed for the renowned 2006 Rencontres D’Arles Book Award. He has a forthcoming book of images of Greenland to be published by Hatje Cantz and is scheduled to exhibit his Icelandic work at the Museum of Photography in Reykjavik in 2007.
An opening reception for Becker will be held on Thursday, April 26, 2007 from 7 to 9 p.m, at the Stephen Cohen Gallery located at 7358 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.