Shadow play: Koto Bolofo on fantasy, fashion, and his first show in the Netherlands
‘I love using the word “photograph” instead of “image” ... image for me is disposable,’ says photographer Koto Bolofo, who has just launched his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands at Amsterdam’s Kahmann Gallery.
The scene he operates in has changed significantly since he came to London in the early 1960s, a political refugee from apartheid South Africa. Inspired by the visual culture of the swinging days of capital, it was in the 1980s that Bolofo really started to break through, shooting editorials for Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ and campaigns for Hermès, Dior and Louis Vuitton, publishing several photobooks and spending two years documenting his hero, Lord Snowdon.
Yet Bolofo’s work was never strictly tied to fashion. As the title of his first exhibition in the Netherlands suggests, he’s a visionary who has spent 30 years stepping between the boundaries of his medium. The earliest photograph included in ‘Between Black and White' was shot in Capri in 1986, and depicts a young Catherina Presser in a translucent silk nightdress: combining eroticism, fantasy and fashion. Bolofo recalls the shoot: ‘I claim I was the first one to wet a silk nightie with a bucket of water which clung to her body revealing her nude body in a gentle way. At the time it was daring... and hey! The Italians published the image.’
It’s typical of the frisson in Bolofo’s images, whether he’s shooting men or women. Rather than simply showing up and capturing his subjects, the photographer is known for spending time getting to know them first. ‘His intimacy with his subjects is something you really feel in his work; he works hard to make a connection with his subjects to get to a level of ease and total openness,' explains Willemijn van der Zwaan, director of Kahmann. ‘You see it in the books he makes, like Dreams and Venus: there is an extraordinary level of trust between photographer and subject.’
A regular contributor to Wallpaper*, Bolofo is also known for his use of natural light, something which arguably takes skill and precision that’s been largely lost in today’s tech-dependent era. ‘Our pace was definitely slower and precise in what one did,’ Bolofo concedes. ‘Like a good vintage wine from a glass bottle; not a carton and easily disposable.’
It’s not easy to be timeless when you work with a time-based medium like photography, but the exhibition highlights — through different series and books, including commissioned work and artistic projects — how Bolofo has consistently produced iconic images that are absent of the markers of time. Examples of this range from his audacious minimalism in the 1990s, to his striking introduction of colour in Black Beauty (2008), and Heat (2008), in which bodies are treated for their formal qualities, sculptural and sublime.
INFORMATION
‘Between Black and White’ is on view until 1 July. For more information, visit the Kahmann Gallery website
ADDRESS
Kahmann Gallery
Lindengracht 35
1015 KB Amsterdam
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Fender Hello Kitty Stratocaster marks 50 years of Sanrio’s finest cartoon cat
Hello Kitty reaches her half-century in 2025 and Fender Japan is out to celebrate with guitars and new merchandise, including a revival of its cult Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
First Look: inside Bentley Home's new Dubai flagship
Bentley Home expands within the UAE with its first flagship store in Dubai, a light and airy showroom showcasing some of the best of luxury craftsmanship
By Becky Sunshine Published
-
First Look: ‘It’s a chair that smiles at you,’ says designer Bruce Hannah
Knoll reissues the Morrison Hannah office chair from 1973, bringing a welcome dose of comfort to working life and simplicity to complex times
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
‘The danger of AI’, photography and the future at Foam
New project ‘Photography Through the Lens of AI’ asks the big questions at Foam, Amsterdam
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Artist Peggy Kuiper’s impactful figurative works explore her memories and emotional landscape with striking visual intensity
Peggy Kuiper presents ‘The Conversation That Never Took Place’ at Reflex in Amsterdam, featuring over 25 new works (until 13 July)
By Simon Chilvers Published
-
Meredith Monk’s interdisciplinary art sets all the senses singing in Amsterdam show
‘Meredith Monk: Calling’ at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, is both a series of concerts and a deep-dive into Monk’s eclectic oeuvre
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Heads up: art exhibitions to see in January 2024
Start the year right with the Wallpaper* pick of art exhibitions to see in January 2024
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Carlijn Jacobs and Sabine Marcelis create a surreal fantasy at Foam, Amsterdam
Photographer Carlijn Jacobs has united with Sabine Marcelis on the design of her first solo exhibition, at Foam, Amsterdam
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Caroline Walker curates as Grimm Amsterdam explores domesticity in art
Curating ‘The Painted Room’ at Grimm Amsterdam, Caroline Walker explores the intimacy of interiors
By Emily Steer Published
-
Drift Museum, a blockbusting experiential space, is set to open in Amsterdam in 2025
Drift Museum is a collaboration between art duo Drift – aka Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta – and entrepreneur Eduard Zanen
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Cyprien Gaillard on chaos, reorder and excavating a Paris in flux
We interviewed French artist Cyprien Gaillard ahead of his major two-part show, ‘Humpty \ Dumpty’ at Palais de Tokyo and Lafayette Anticipations (until 8 January 2023). Through abandoned clocks, love locks and asbestos, he dissects the human obsession with structural restoration
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published