Olaf Otto Becker

Olaf Otto Becker (* 1959 in Lübeck-Travemünde ) is a German photographer and designer .

Life

From 1981 to 1986 Olaf Otto Becker studied communication design in Augsburg and then for two years philosophy and religious studies at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He has been a freelance designer and photographer since 1988 and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions. Since 2003 he has only been working on photography-oriented projects. Becker is a freelancer for the New York Times Magazine.

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From 2003 to 2006 Olaf Otto Becker drove 4,000 kilometers along the Greenland coast in a rubber dinghy. The resulting Broken Line series of images shows rocks, deep black water and icebergs, but also small settlements.

For his project Above Zero , Becker hiked across the Greenland ice sheet over the next two years and photographed some of the countless glacial streams and rivers that make their way through the ice reliefs until they disappear beneath them again.

The series Under the Nordic Light shows images from Iceland . Becker had been working on it since 1999.

Olaf Otto Becker is not only interested in romantic natural beauty, rather he strives for a connection between art and documentation. The traces of climate change can be clearly seen in Becker's Greenland pictures: The snow-white is no longer white, but is marked by deposits of dust and soot; the melting of the ice can be seen on the surfaces. In the deserted landscape, the human influence on nature is clearly visible.

With Reading the Landscape , created from 2008 to 2014, Olaf Otto Becker dedicated himself to the tropical rainforests . Initially he dealt with the primary jungle, for example in Malaysia or Indonesia . In a second chapter, photographed in Borneo and Sumatra , for example , he shows the destruction of the rainforest, stubble and palm oil fields of gigantic proportions or acacia wood forests, for which the rainforest was cut down for the profit of the paper industry. Often Becker was only able to take illegal photos in these areas.

Awards

• He received the 2008 German Photo Book Prize for his illustrated book Broken Lines
• His first illustrated book Under the Nordic Light was nominated for the Rencontres D'Arles Book Award.

Photographic work

• 1988–1996 Southern German Agricultural Landscapes
• 1994-1999 Polaroid
• 1994–2002 waterfall
• 1999–2002 Under the light of northern Iceland
• 2003–2006 Broken line Greenland
• 2007–2008 Above Zero Greenland
• 1999–2011 Under The Nordic Light , A Journey Through Time, Iceland 1999–2011
• 2008–2014 Reading the Landscape

Photo books

• Broken Line (Greenland 2003-2006) . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1972-8 .
• Above Zero (Greenland 2007-2008) . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2437-1 .
• Reading the landscape . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2014, ISBN 978-3-7757-3854-5 .

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• Stadthaus Ulm , Germany (2011)
• Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, UK (2009)
• Galerie f.5.6 Munich, Germany (2008)
• Stephen Cohen Gallery Los Angeles, USA (2008)
• Cohen Amador Gallery, New York, USA (2008)
• Stephen Cohen Gallery Los Angeles, USA (2007)
• Kunstverein Emsdetten, Germany (2007)
• Cohen Amador Gallery, New York, USA (2006)
• Galerie Hartmann, Munich, Germany (2006)
• Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany (2005)
• Galerie AV Ludwigsburg, Germany (2004)
• Galerie Hartmann, Munich, Germany (2003)

Web links

• Literature by and about Olaf Otto Becker in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official website. Retrieved October 2, 2012 . 
• Olaf Otto Becker at Galerie Lumas. Retrieved November 27, 2009 . 
• Biography at Galerie f / 5.6. Retrieved October 2, 2012 . 
• Article about his Broken Line project . Retrieved October 2, 2012 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Exhibition directory at photography-now.com
2. ^ Curators
3. ↑ Olaf Otto Becker - Interview: Sad tropics . In: art . ( art-magazin.de [accessed on September 17, 2017]). Olaf Otto Becker - Interview: Sad Tropics ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ German Photo Book Prize 2008 ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Hatje Cantz Verlag
6. ^ Hatje Cantz Verlag
7. ^ Hatje Cantz Verlag
8. ^ Ulm town hall. Retrieved September 17, 2017 .