Pierre ToussaintOLAF

Join us on Thursday 27 June, from 6-9pm, at the Peinture Fraîche bookshop, to meet Pierre Toussaint and Joseph Hogan. They will be presenting the book project.

OLAF is a book entirely centred on one character. Apart from his name, we know nothing about him. Olaf settled on the steps of a narrow staircase, on the banks of the Rhône, in the town of Arles. The photographer, Pierre Toussaint, crossed the concrete bridge linking the two banks of the river. He approached, then decided to return and spend some time, getting as close as possible to his subject. He stayed for three weeks.

These photographs do not offer an answer to the enigmatic presence of this man. They unfold over the pages in a fragile balance that expresses both the need to maintain the right distance and the choice of formal rigour,
and the desire to plunge into the sensitive surface.

Olaf retains his mystery, he remains ageless, he advances towards an indefinite horizon, like Alberto Giacometti’s walking man. The book
invites us to come closer to an essential part of our humanity, where power and determination are inseparable from vulnerability.

PIERRE TOUSSAINT was born in Brussels in 1982. He began his studies in photography at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts de l’Image Le 75, before moving on to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie, Arles. He was selected to do a post-graduate course at Senac University, São Paulo. Finally, he completed an in-depth master’s degree in photography at the ERG.