Oliver Abraham

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Oliver Abraham was born in Cologne in 1972. Between 2001 and 2004 he completed his studies in photography at the "Photography on Schiffbauerdamm" school in Berlin as a master student with Prof. Arno Fischer.
Since 2013 he has been working on a series of portraits of journalists, activists (among others WikilLeaks), philosophers, representatives of the "New Left" as well as artists who deal with the topic of surveillance and press freedom and the Express your political attitude artistically. The portrait sessions take place exclusively in natural light - with the exception of the portrait of Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he made the photos with artificial light due to the conditions and limitations. The main focus of the artist is to unite all "protagonists" - the different disciplines (philosophy, journalism, activism, art and politics) as well as different generations (pre- and postinternet, digital natives, ‘68 generation) - and using a continuous series of photos to show connections and influences among each other. Due to the political events, the work has documentary elements, whereas the selection of the people as well as the presentation are subjective. The persons portrayed are pursuing a common goal: the preservation of human rights - foremost the fight for freedom of opinion and the press and the critical examination of state surveillance. The analogous approach and the deliberate reduction on black and white and a limited number of films should allow an unfiltered and close representation of these personalities and thus act as an antidote to the digital flood of images. The first pictures of this series show Taryn Simon in 2009 and Patti Smith in 2010 and were still part of a series "Artist Portraits". It was followed by important events such as the Greek crisis, Edward Snowden's notices, the refugee crisis, Brexit, the presidency of D. Trump etc. Over the next few years, the series grew through more and more people engaged in the subject. Meeting the personalities and the related exchange, helps the Artist to better understand the events of the past years and also see things that apply beyond the daily official reporting.Oliver Abraham lives and works in Cologne.