LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) – A magazine known for its award-winning photography is seeking to honor the best of pictures of Nebraska wildlife, scenery and outdoor recreation.

Nebraskaland Magazine will begin accepting submissions for its 2023 photography contest on Sunday.

The annual contest honors the best photographs of Nebraska wildlife, outdoor activities and landscapes in the Cornhusker State.

Winning photos will be published in the January/February 2024 issue of Nebraskaland Magazine, a publication of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Entries should be posted via Instagram using the hashtag #Nebraskaland2023. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Central time Oct. 28. Contestants must make sure their Instagram account is “public” so judges can view the entries.

There are four categories:

• Wildlife — wild mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish
• Scenic — in which landmarks, scenery or inanimate objects are prominent
• Recreation — people enjoying the outdoors through hunting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, skiing or other outdoor activities (no traditional sports images will be accepted)
• Macro — native wildflowers, foliage, fruiting bodies or other parts of plants and the creepy crawly creatures that inhabit them

All photos must be taken in Nebraska.

New this year: entrants are limited to a maximum of six image submissions, and images’ colors and composition must appear as they did when photographed.

Find the complete contest rules at Magazine.OutdoorNebraska.gov/PhotoContest.

Copyright 2023 KOLN. All rights reserved.

If scrolling through social media to see pictures of cute dogs and hilarious cats is a favorite pastime of yours, then this new exhibit at Fotografiska is a must-see. Titled “Best in Show,” the exhibition explores the role of furry and feathered friends in our culture through more than 100 incredible photographs. 

Photos show dogs in a variety of situations, like getting baths, posing, partying, shaking their heads and even dressing up in fancy “cones of shame.” Cats, rats, bunnies, birds, reptiles, turtles and fish get their moment in the spotlight, too, at this exhibition on view in the Flatiron District through January 2024. 

RECOMMENDED: The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now

The show showcases works by 25 renowned photographers. That includes William Wegman’s famed Weimaraner portraits, pictures by Sophie Gamand of dogs taking baths and images by the world’s first professional cat photographer Walter Chandoha. From candid photos of pets at home to posh portraits of pups at the Westminster Dog Show, each image explores the unbreakable bond between humans and their pets.

In addition to photography, several videos capture pets in motion. One takes viewers up close and personal as dogs and cats shake their heads sending their glorious tufts of fur from side to side. Another presents footage of pastel-colored birds gracefully landing on a tree branch. 

Gerrard Gethings’ section of photographs depicts pets who look uncannily similar to their owners. For example, there’s a man with a puffy white beard posed next to his fluffy white cat, then a man with gleaming Fabio-style locks photographed next to his dog with a very similar hairdo.

It presents a much-needed moment of levity before the next section, which explains how dogs in Spain are often abandoned or killed after hunting season ends. These photos by Martin Usborne underscore the deeper message of the exhibit: Animals depend on us to help them. 

Every year, 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized in America, according to the ASPCA. Helping reduce that number has become an important mission for actress Katherine Heigl of Grey’s Anatomy fame.

With her mother, Heigl founded The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation to end animal cruelty and abuse. A dollar from every ticket sold at the Fotografiska exhibition will go toward the foundation.

“For every well-loved and celebrated animal that you see in this exhibit today and for every beloved pet in our homes, there are hundreds and thousands of others languishing in our shelters across our country waiting for help and running out of time,” Heigl said at an opening event for the show. “And we can help and we must help for they are the voiceless and the innocent.”

For every well loved and celebrated animal that you see in this exhibit … there are hundreds and thousands of others languishing in our shelters across our country waiting for help and running out of time.

Heigl also founded Badlands Ranch, a dog food company, which is sponsoring “Best in Show.”

The “Best in Show” exhibit spans two floors of Fotografiska; paw print stickers on the floor help with guidance. In addition to photography and video, there’s a multimedia installation, faux fur on some walls and even a Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog” sculpture. 

Some of the photos will make you laugh, some will make you sad, and some will make you want to go home and cuddle your pet. And if you don’t have a pet, be sure to adopt from our local shelters in NYC. 

“Photographers have been turning their lenses on animals since the beginnings of the medium,” Fotografiska New York’s Executive Director Sophie Wright said. “Of course, ‘Best in Show’ is meant to be fun. We want it to delight and entertain and bring smiles to your faces.”

To complement the exhibit, Fotografiska is hosting several special events, including pet portraiture sessions where you can bring your own pet for a photo with a pro. Several Yappy Hour dog adoption pop-ups are also coming up, to be held at Madison Square Park. On October 15, go on a museum-wide scavenger hunt with Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl Referee Dan Schachner. 

“Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography” is on view now at Fotografiska, a photography museum in the Flatiron District, through January 2024. The museum is open Sunday-Wedsnesday 9am-9pm; Thursday-Saturday 9am-11pm. Tickets cost $30 adult, $20 senior/student/military/veteran.

Winter photography can be a magical yet challenging experience due to the conditions that come with cold weather, snow, sleet, high winds, and limited daylight. As photographers, we can prepare for this in advance to ensure we’re insulated and dry enough to keep out the elements that this season throws at us, but what about our equipment?

Is your gear ready for sub-zero temperatures, freezing rain, and long periods of hourly changeable weather conditions that never quite reach 32 degrees Fahrenheit? It can change very quickly from a sub-zero overcast day to a howling freezing near-blizzard in a matter of minutes. “Blizzard” might be a little over dramatic in the case below but you get the idea.

Can Your Camera Cope With These Conditions?

Interestingly, most cameras can push beyond what the manufacturers recommend, although I’d be the first to say don’t try it, as you know they are tested to their extremes, and working recommendations are in place for that reason. Not all cameras are the same, however, so which ones would be best suited for winter conditions? I’ve photographed with a Nikon D850 with at 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and in colder conditions with a wind chill. The Nikon Z7 II and the Fujifilm X-T5 I’ve photographed with at 17 degrees Fahrenheit, but not any colder as yet. The camera is not the only consideration to make, however; Can your lenses hold up to these conditions? What specifications do they need to have as well? You also need to think about that. 

What’s the Spec?

As I mentioned, I’ve successfully used the Nikon D850, Z7 II, and Fujifilm X-T5 in sub-zero conditions and they performed with no problems at all. I did keep the batteries close to me for body heat when not using them and perhaps they did run down slightly faster than normal, but I couldn’t say for sure as normally I gave up before them. Either that or I’d seek out somewhere warmer before heading back out again.

So what cameras can hold up to what the winter conditions can throw at you? Here’s a list of five, in no particular order, that are designed to work in conditions like these and I would love to hear in the comments other cameras, tried and tested by you, that can add to the list.

Nikon D850

• Official operating Temperatures: 32 to 104F
• Operating Humidity Range: 85% or less 
• Weather Sealing: Yes
• Megapixel count: 45.7
• Format: Full Frame
• Weight: 1005g

Fuji X-T5

• Official operating Temperatures: 14 to 105F 
• Operating Humidity Range: 10 – 80%
• Weather Sealing: Yes
• Megapixel count: 40.2
• Format: APS-C
• Weight: 557g (including battery and memory card)

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

• Official operating Temperatures: 32 to 104F
• Operating Humidity Range: 85% or less humidity
• Weather Sealing: Yes
• Megapixel count: 30.4
• Format: Full Frame
• Weight: 890g

Sony A9

• Official operating Temperatures: 32 to 104F
• Operating Humidity Range: 85% or less humidity
• Weather Sealing: Yes
• Megapixel count: 24.2
• Format: Full Frame
• Weight: 588g

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III

• Official operating Temperatures: 14 to 104F
• Operating Humidity Range: 30-90% 
• Weather Sealing: Yes
• Megapixel count: 4/3
• Format: Full Frame
• Weight: 504g

All Things Considered

The points mentioned above don’t include the entire specifications of the cameras, but do include the important information that you should consider when working in winter conditions. Weather and dust sealing is an essential feature for these harsher conditions and these seals provide that extra layer of protection, safeguarding against the elements and ensuring your camera functions reliably even in extreme cold, freezing rain, and snow. I’m not saying leave them out in it as I also use a rain cover or cheap shower cap to cover the gear once set up on the tripod. But these seals in sub-zero temperatures help prevent moisture from entering the camera body which can lead to condensation and potential damage to its internal components.

Depending on the temperatures, I often use hand warmers wrapped around the lenses for longer shoots, such as timelapses. Apart from ensuring the lens operates efficiently, this also provides an extra layer of protection from the elements.

Reacclimatizing

I have a ritualistic approach to reacclimatizing my gear to a warmer environment. Doing this will ensure you prevent potential damage to your equipment, even if weather-sealed when transitioning from a cold to a warmer environment, as these sudden temperature changes can have a detrimental effect on your gear. My bag already contains many silica gels that I gather up when I get a delivery of something which I leave in the bag all year round. This takes care of any changes in moisture levels in humid or cold environments.

The steps I take when reacclimatising:

1. The camera bag — still closed — is wiped down to remove any of the elements and left in the room for a few hours.
2. After a few hours, I’ll open up the bag and again just leave it for about half an hour.
3. I’ll then take the camera and lenses out of the bag, wipe them down (lens cap still on), and leave them on a surface for around another hour.
4.  Finally, I’ll give them another wipe-down and then remove the SD cards ready to be uploaded.

This may be totally unnecessary with regard to timescales, and in some cases not possible depending on what you are working on, but this is my usual ritual. During this time I can take a warm shower, get a hot cuppa, and just relax. I don’t need to see the images straight away, I’ve already experienced the conditions, and with luck, got the images I was after.

So with winter conditions on the horizon, embracing the cold can open up so many artistic possibilities. The serenity of snow-covered landscapes, the low arc of the winter sun, and the play of light on frosty surfaces, all create a dream canvas for your photography. While these can at times be challenging conditions, demanding extra effort on your part and that of your equipment, the resulting images can definitely be bountiful. Ensure you are up to it and wrapped up to the hilt, but also ensure your gear is up the the challenge of what you are going to be putting it through to get the shots.

Consider the Gear

Some of the cameras mentioned here have a hefty price tag so have you ever considered purchasing used? MPB.com is a leading marketplace for buying and selling your gear and offers a wide range of cameras, lenses, and photography accessories. With a reputation for reliability and quality, they have become a trusted online destination for both amateur and professional photographers looking to exchange and upgrade their gear.

MPB has an extensive list of available items spanning cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and camera bags; there is something for everyone and every budget. Everything is quality-checked and graded, providing detailed descriptions of the items shown enabling you to make informed choices. The image shown of the equipment is the actual piece you would receive and not a stock image. I’ve personally used them for many years to trade in or purchase gear and each transaction has been quick and smooth, with great customer service and an honest appraisal and quote for the equipment I’ve traded to them. So if you are considering upgrading or changing your kit entirely they are definitely worth checking out.

Mark Pain is an internationally acclaimed sports photographer with multiple “Sports Photographer of the Year Awards” from the British Press Awards. He has photographed many of the world’s most incredible sporting events during his decades of work, including having shot the Ryder Cup, professional golf’s premier team competition.

To celebrate the 44th edition of the biennial Ryder Cup teeing off today at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy — pitting the United States squad against team Europe — it is as good a time as any to look at one of Pain’s most famous photos, arguably the first golf photo ever to go viral.

In an interview with Golf Digest, Pain explains how he got the iconic image of Tiger Woods at the 38th Ryder Cup in Wales in 2010 featured at the top of this article. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s coming straight at me, and that’s pretty nuts,’ I remember looking at the back of the camera and thinking, ‘That looks a bit weird.’ It’s by far the most famous picture I’ve ever taken. It’s such a bizarre moment that it’s real fun actually talking about it,” Pain explains.

The image, which PetaPixel featured when it went viral in 2010, shows a Woods’ chip shot appearing to come straight at the camera as a mass of people, the “gallery” as fans are called in golf, stand behind him, all watching the shot.

Even as camera technology improves, adding faster shooting speeds and better autofocus, a shot like Pain’s is practically impossible to get in 2023. Everyone in the frame, save for a professional camera operator and some pro photographers, is watching the spectacle with the naked eye, not through a smartphone screen as they record the moment. It is a far cry from what major sporting events look like today.

And the crowd is important to Pain’s image — it is the critical context that sets the scene and tells the story.

“Back in 2010, I was the chief sports photographer for the Mail on Sunday — a big British Sunday newspaper. My role as a photographer was to cover a whole variety of sports every week. I was very lucky in those days to be sent around the world doing pretty much all the big sporting events that are played,” Pain says.

“Shooting the Ryder Cup is nothing like shooting golf. It’s a huge event. It’s not just a golf tournament, it’s about personalities as well. In many ways, the golf was irrelevant to me, it’s all about moments, capturing that moment of each competition on that particular day,” he continues.

On the day of the famous photo, Pain was out on the course with Tiger Woods, and the weather, in typical Welsh fashion, was rainy and windy. The wind was so strong that rain coated the front of Pain’s lens almost as soon as he brought it up to shoot. “It was hell,” Pain says.

After not taking many shots during the round because the weather was brutal and Pain needed his cameras to survive through the end of the day, the Sun finally poked through and the rain slowed, just in time for Pain to follow Woods down the 18th and final hole.

“Tiger’s coming down 18 in the Ryder Cup, so there must have been 10 photographers at least covering that particular match. He hits his shot to the left of 18. We have no real idea of where the ball has landed,” Pain says, although marshals were ushering people out of the way, suggesting that Woods had found his way into the rough.

As professional sports photographers, Pain and the others move up around the spectators and often kneel so that fans can see over their heads. As is often the case, Pain had a long lens and a wide-angle lens with him.

“I put my big lens down to my side and got myself technically ready to take the picture of what was going to be happening in front of me,” Pain explains. “I’ve now got Tiger Woods facing me with his caddy talking about the shot, and I’ve got a bank, literally it’s like a terrace, of thousands of people. It laid itself to be a lovely wide, colorful image with lots of faces.”

“I remember focusing on Tiger as he was standing over the ball, addressing the ball, and the Sun has now come out…my ISO was set, my shutter speed was set, my composition was set. I’m doing nothing technical at all. Literally just watching him with my finger over the shutter,” he continues.

As Woods made his shot, sports photography magic happened.

“I thought maybe I had messed up focus-wise because the first frame I saw, the camera shows you the last frame you talk, and that was pretty much white, so I flicked back to the last image, the one everyone knows,” Pain says.

“What staggers me is people’s faces,” Pain says, looking at his photo. “Everyone is looking as though something mad has just happened. Everyone looks like they’re on a film set…You almost couldn’t set this up better in terms of the composition. Every single person here, every golf fan, is watching someone play a golf shot, as opposed to filming somebody play a golf shot.”

Although it looks like Pain was standing directly in front of Woods as he made his shot, he was about 45 degrees to Woods’ right. However, Woods was having a rough day on the course, and his shot was shanked from the rough, coming straight to Pain, who, 999 times out of 1,000, would have been safely out of the way. That 1-in-1,000 event — getting hit by a wayward Tiger Woods golf shot — resulted in a one-in-a-million photo.

Pain was in such shock, having been hit by a golf ball that fell to his feet, and Tiger Woods and his caddy looked so angry, probably more at the bad shot than the fact that the ball had hit Pain, that Pain quickly left the area.

Looking back at Mark Pain’s iconic image, PetaPixel chatted with the photographer about the picture and sports photography at large.

“The Tiger Woods picture is certainly up there as one of the best images I’ve ever taken,” Pain tells PetaPixel. “One of the best, but certainly the luckiest.”

“Great sports photography is all about capturing the moment, and I certainly have never had such a huge number of important factors come together for me in a single image,” he adds.

Pain explains that the composition and light could not have been any better, even if he had complete control over everything. Beyond the fantastic light, fascinating fans in the background, and the picture-perfect moment, Pain notes that the image is made even better because it features Tiger Woods, who remains among the most famous athletes in the world and was undoubtedly the most prominent golfer in 2010.

Golf is typically one of the easier sports that Pain photographs.

“However, photographing the Ryder Cup throws up its own unique challenges. It can be a physical challenge if you’re following a particular match or pairing over 18 holes. You’re constantly playing catch-up as a photographer to get ahead of the players and action and to get in position in good time for your next shot.”

Beyond the struggle to stay in good spots for photos, weather is also a factor. “Shooting football (soccer) or rugby etc. in the rain is fine, as you’re generally shooting from a fixed position on a stool with the usual rain covers etc. However, it’s a completely different challenge if you’re constantly on the move in the rain on an open golf course. It can be a real nightmare, especially as you’re generally carrying at least a couple of camera bodies, one with a big telephoto and another with a wider zoom. So that in itself was a real challenge in the build-up to the Tiger moment — I was literally in camera survival mode at times,” Pain tells PetaPixel.

Pain’s legendary shot has also taken on a cult meme status among golf fans and the internet. One of the spectators, known as “cigar guy,” took on a life of his own in 2010 and still resonates with people today. Pain shared a hilarious Photoshop that someone sent on Instagram this morning.

Often, a great photo is at least partly due to luck. In this case, Pain certainly gives good fortune a lot of credit. However, make no mistake, even though he is lucky that Woods hit a lousy shot that came straight toward him — although the ball probably hurt a bit — Pain’s talent and experience ensured he was not only in the right place at the right time, but that he was able to take full advantage.

Mark Pain’s Amazing Photography Shows Skill, Patience, and a Rich Range of Sports

More of Pain’s sports photography is available on his website and Instagram. Pain also operates the Mark Pain Sports Photography School, where photographers can learn sports photography skills directly from Pain.

Image credits: All images © Mark Pain.

A photographer who takes stunning photos of marine life tells PetaPixel he spends 500 hours underwater each year.

Andrey Savin shoots his photos in the Philippines where he lives and captures all manner of exotic sea creatures; including turtles, squids, eels, and clownfish.

“Underwater, the body works in ‘light’ mode and the brain in ‘turbo’ mode,” says Savin. “You have to analyze everything at once and very quickly.”

Savin, who regularly dives solo, says that while beneath the waves he is looking for “unusual behavior, beautiful natural light, rare sea creatures, successful combination of colors, and expressive faces.”

“This is not a complete list, but those are the aspects that I intuitively use when building a frame. I also try not to make the image look like it was shot with flash, I strive for maximum naturalness and natural beauty,” he adds.

Although Savin doesn’t want his photos to look like it’s been lit with flash — something he achieves time and time again — he does take a lot of lighting down into the deep blue with him.

“I have two cameras: the main one is a Sony A7R IV which gives amazing resolution (I’m switching to the A7R V now) and the backup camera is a Panasonic GH5 with an external recorder Atomos Ninja V (mainly for video shooting),” he explains.

“I use a dozen excellent lenses in conjunction with these cameras. Among my favorites are the Canon 8-15mm fisheye, a Sony 90mm macro for full frame, an Olympus 60mm macro, and an Olympus 7-14mm for micro four-thirds.

“And then there are eight flashes and more than 10 underwater lights. After all, light underwater is a major factor in success. Don’t think it’s all about the number of lumens, not at all. Quality of light and flexibility of control are of paramount importance.”

Savin says that anyone can develop their skills in the water given enough practice, something he has himself in abundance.

“Although I stopped counting the number of dives I do a long time ago, I estimate that I spend more than 500 hours underwater per year,” he says.

“As for photography, it is an endless process. Before every dive, I set clear goals that I want to achieve. This is the key to progressive movement and development of my abilities,” he says.

“I love to test new equipment and cooperate with a number of brands. I am sure that the qualitative leap in skills (both diving and photography) occurs when you move to solo diving — when you can count only on yourself, on your own strength and skills — it significantly increases the level of responsibility and gives complete freedom.”

More of Savin’s work can be found on his Instagram and website.

Image credits: Photographs by Andrey Savin

Bryan Adams says that he feels like “a photographer moonlighting as a singer” in a new interview.

Adams is not only a famed rock icon, but he’s also had a successful career as a professional photographer. In an interview in the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine, Adams revealed that he now actually sees himself as a photographer first and foremost.

He Didn’t See Himself as a ‘Real Photographer’ For Years

In the interview with Classic Rock magazine that was spotted by Digital Camera World, Adams says he always had a keen interest in photography in his early days as a musician.

Adams would carry a camera everywhere and shoot photographs of life on the road and backstage as a musician. However, he initially never shared his images and kept his photography private — as he believed that he was not a “real” photographer.

In the late 1990s, Adams decided to stop hiding his images. The singer started sharing his work and passion for photography with the world.

“The more I did it, though, the more confidence I got in my own work… so I just started taking things into my own hands,” Adams says.

‘I’m Trying to Find Two or Three Frames That Are Different’

Adams says that he takes a relaxed approach to shooting portraits and finds that problems arise when a lensman tries to force a great photograph out of a subject.

“I like to have a bit of a laugh. I don’t want it to be too stressful and I want people to look great,” Adams explains

“I’m just trying to find those two or three frames that are different from anything else.”

Over the last decade, Adams has photographed figures such as Muhammed Ali, Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, and even Queen Elizabeth II. Adams tells Classic Rock magazine that he now sees himself as “a photographer moonlighting as a singer.”

In 2022, Adams was tapped to photograph the 2022 Pirelli calendar. Titled “On the Road,” Bryans shot the likes of Iggy Pop, Cher, Jennifer Hudson, and Grimes for the calendar.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.

New Delhi: Photographer Gauri Gill has won the prestigious 10th Annual Prix Pictet Photography and Sustainability Award, securing the massive prize of 100,000 Swiss Francs (approximately $109,219). This award is recognised as one of the world’s most significant, if not the largest, prizes in the realm of photography.

The award was announced on Thursday, September 28.

Gauri Gill.

Gill was selected from the shortlist of 12 photographers for her series Notes from the Desert.

Government hospital, Barmer, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’, 1999-ongoing. Credit: Gauri Gill

Waterwells, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

“On my many visits to rural Rajasthan, I have witnessed a complex reality I knew nothing about as a city dweller. To live poor and landless in the desert amounts to an inescapable reliance on oneself, on each other, and on nature,” said Gill.

Hanuman Nath with his daughter and Hem Nath, on Holi day, Lunkaransar, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

Jannat, Barmer, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill Photo:

The Prix Pictet is described as the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability. Founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group – a Swiss multinational private bank and financial services company – the award’s goal is to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to critical environmental issues.

Entry to this competition is only allowed to individuals nominated through Prix Pictet’s  global network of over 300 nominators which includes critics, curators, and other specialists in the visual arts.

Nominators are asked to recommend portfolios that have the power and artistic quality demanded by the prize.

Since it was founded, the organisation says that more than 5,000 photographers have been nominated, “all of whose work in one way or another testifies to the fragile state of our planet.”

“In a world facing unprecedented challenges, from social inequality to environmental crises, it was crucial to turn the lens towards humanity itself. The theme Human provides a platform to explore the complexities, vulnerabilities, and strengths of the human condition. It allows the artists to capture and communicate the stories, struggles and triumphs of individuals and communities around the globe,” Executive Director of Prix Pictet, Isabelle von Ribbentrop, said.

“Through this theme, Prix Pictet aims to foster a deeper understanding of our shared humanity and inspire meaningful conversations about the issues that impact us all. Especially when thinking about the theme Human, I strongly believe that instead of the future of photography, we should think about photography of the future. The power of the image lies in its ability to foreground critical and urgent environmental issues in a visually impactful yet direct way.”

‘Jogiyon ka dera’, Lunkaransar, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

Mir Hasan with his grandfather Haji Saraj Ud Din, oldest member of the community, in his last days, Barmer, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

Gill’s work emphasises her belief in working with and through community, in what she calls ‘active listening’. For more than two decades, she has been closely engaged with marginalised communities in the desert of western Rajasthan, Northern India and for the last decade with Indigenous artists in Maharashtra.

Her winning series ‘Notes from the Desert’ began in April 1999 when she set out to photograph village schools in Rajasthan. Having grown up mainly in cities, she soon realised that rural schools were a microcosm of a complex reality she knew nothing about.

Visiting the same people and places over decades, she witnessed the whole spectrum of life: drought years and great monsoon; dust storms leading to widespread fevers and floods leading to the rebuilding of homes; epidemics; overwhelmed hospitals and understaffed school; festivals, feuds, celebrations, and prayers.

New homes after the flood, Lunkaransar, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

Surmi, daughter of Ismail the Shepherd, Barmer, from the series ‘Notes from the Desert’. Credit: Gauri Gill

The Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf, who has died aged 64 following a lung transplant, straddled the world of art, advertising and fashion photography with a sumptuous cinematic and painterly aesthetic. Into his meticulously staged works he introduced subtle imperfections to stir disquiet in his audience: “There should be a riddle in every powerful image, so you are intrigued and invited to look over and over again.”

He was influenced by the storytelling power of cinema and the emotion it could provoke. He wanted to create an open-ended narrative in a single shot, to capture the moment between what just happened and what is about to happen. In 2014 he said: “I used to want to conquer the world with strong images, but nowadays I want to say to the viewer: I’ll give you the ingredients, you make the story.”

Olaf began as a controversial figure, striving to subvert established norms, challenge taboos and celebrate diversity. His first inspiration, one that “struck me like lightning” as a student, was Weegee’s Transvestite/The Gay Deceiver c1939, a photograph with a celluloid quality that would stay with him and become a motif of his work. Other influences were the photographers Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Joel-Peter Witkin, but he also drew inspiration from the Dutch masters Rembrandt, Jan Steen and George Hendrik Breitner.

While living in a squat in Amsterdam in the 1980s, Olaf began photographing the city’s nightlife and the gay liberation movement, exploring sexuality in stark black and white images.

In 1988 he completed a series of images called Chessmen. Comprising 32 sadomasochistic erotic tableaux inspired by medieval chess pieces, Chessmen crystallised the way he wanted to present his work: as a series of thematically linked, single photographs. It was his breakthrough moment and Olaf was awarded first prize in the 1988 Young European Photographer competition. A book of the work was published and his first major solo exhibition opened at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.

Despite his underground, radical beginnings, his sheer talent, mastery of the medium and innate affinity with the traditions of Dutch art soon meant he was embraced by the mainstream in his homeland. In 2013, he designed the new Dutch euro coins based on his portrait of King Willem-Alexander. He took the official state portraits of the Dutch royal family in 2018, which were turned into the royal Christmas card and issued as postage stamps. The following year, on his 60th birthday, there was a double exhibition of his work in The Hague, and one at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, featuring core work from the 500 items he donated to the museum.

Born Erwin Olaf Springveld in the town of Hilversum to Simon Springveld, a sales manager for an office supplies company, and Alida (nee Van ’t Hoff), he moved with the family to Hoevelaken in 1967 and attended secondary school in Amersfoort. In 1977 he enrolled at the School of Journalism in Utrecht, but in his second year, a photography tutor saw that Erwin was unhappy and invited him to one of his classes: “I felt comfortable with the medium immediately, [it] felt like a homecoming.”

After graduating in 1980, he assisted a photojournalist in Amsterdam for two years, while also documenting the gay scene. He loved the theatre of the clubs, the experimentation with persona and gender identity. He gained his first commission from Vinyl, a music magazine, and was published in queer magazines and newspapers.

But he wanted to create his own reality, his own surrealist dreamworld. He dropped his surname, and his 35mm Nikon camera, and bought a second-hand medium-format Hasselblad, which would bring a more formal quality to his edgy work.

Encouraged to be true to his own instincts by his then partner and muse, the militant gay activist Teun Frieszo, Olaf set up a rudimentary studio. He photographed friends from the queer scene and made money taking portraits but, following his success with Chessmen, finally had the freedom to explore his own artistic vision more fully.

He introduced colour and digital manipulation into his work, which became more expansive, characterised by forensic attention to detail. His team of assistants, wardrobe artists, location scouts and set builders helped him produce flawlessly lit and dressed images that depicted mysterious fairy tales, though behind each beautiful facade lies a fissure, signified by an uneasy pose or an incongruous detail.

He produced work for fashion magazines such as Vogue and Elle, and companies such as Heineken, Microsoft, Bottega Veneta and Diesel Jeans, for which he won the 1999 Silver Lion at the Cannes advertising festival. All the images he created were as worthy of being hung in museums as billboards.

Olaf’s personal work continued to be provocative: Mature (1999) depicts elderly women as sensual supermodels; Fashion Victims (2000) highlights the consumerism of designer labels; and Royal Blood (2000), a series of portraits showing historical figures who came to a sticky end, including a Princess Diana lookalike, explores the public fascination with fame and violence.

This century, he pared back the digital artifice and began to produce work that posed deeper philosophical questions, such as in the series Separation (2003), Hope (2005), Grief (2005) and Keyhole (2011). In Palm Springs (2018), shot in a stylised documentary fashion that juxtaposes models dressed in 1960s clothing within modern landscapes, “reality creeps into the paradise we’ve tried so hard to maintain”. Im Wald (2020) highlights the indifferent power of nature in the face of human arrogance.

From 2008 Olaf was represented in the UK by Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair. In 2011 he received the Johannes Vermeer award, the Dutch state prize for the arts and, in 2019, was made a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. His 2019 exhibitions coincided with the publication of a monograph, Erwin Olaf: I Am.

Due to hereditary emphysema, he underwent the lung transplant with the hope that it would lengthen his life. On his death, the Dutch royal family issued a statement mourning the nation’s loss of “a unique, exceptionally talented photographer and a great artist”. An artist who, from day one, made photographs inspired by a question posed by his photography tutor, a question he asked of himself and of his audience throughout his life: “What is normal?”

He is survived by his husband, Kevin Ray Edwards, whom he married in Amsterdam in 2016, and his brothers, Jos and Ron.

The Broomfield Photo Club met last week and discussed street photography where club members Carl Muehlemeyer, Tim Seibert, Gerry Case and Phil Castagneri displayed a selection of their photos taken at Denver Stock Show parades. The annual January event marks the opening of the National Western Stock Show that’s led by a small herd of longhorn cattle parading through the streets of downtown Denver. The club meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month, with its next meeting scheduled for Oct. 24. Meetings are also held via Zoom. To learn more about the club, visit  facebook.com/photoclubbroomfield or contact Carl Muehlemeyer at 303-469-0537 or broomfielphotoclub@gmail.com.