OliverAbraham

*1972, Cologne (DE)Lives and works in Cologne

About

Oliver Abraham was born in Cologne in 1972. Between 2001 and 2004 he studied photography at the Berlin school Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm as a master student of Arno Fischer.

His first artist portraits date from the late 1990s, made with a Rollei medium format camera; since 2004 he has been working exclusively with an 8×10 inch large-format camera. He regularly travels across Europe by car with his equipment and captures his sitters in close proximity, against a neutral background, in natural light — each session a unique, non-reproducible event.

Since 2013 he has been working on a long-term series of portraits of journalists, activists (among them WikiLeaks), philosophers and representatives of the New Left, as well as artists who engage with surveillance, press freedom and political expression. Subjects include Julian Assange, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Patti Smith, Trevor Paglen, Teju Cole, Yanis Varoufakis, Sarah Harrison and many others.

“Oliver Abraham achieves something unusual. He creates the identity of image and person. […] Whoever the celebrities may be, it is the images that leave you speechless. […] The images are so strong that the people recede behind them.”
— Jean-Christophe Ammann

Education

2001–04
Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (DE) — photography studies, master-class student of Prof. Arno Fischer
2002/03
Bilder eines Jahres — annual student exhibitions, Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (DE)
since 2004
Working exclusively with an 8×10 inch large-format camera; gelatin silver printing at Kontrastfotolabor, Cologne (DE)

Exhibitions

Selected solo and group exhibitions.

Solo

2025
Portraits of Artists — Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne (DE)
2019
Freedom of Speech — Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne (DE)
2013
eight by ten — Galerie Chelsea, Sylt/Kampen (DE), with Freddy Langer ("Lost Faces")
2012
Character Stills — Die Kunstagentin, Cologne (DE)
2011
Portraits — Antiquariat Querido, Düsseldorf (DE)
Portraits — Stefan Schuelke Fine Books, Cologne (DE)
2003
100 Fotos — Altes Hauptzollamt, Frankfurt/Main (DE)

Group

2025
AIPAD 2025 — with Galerie Julian Sander, New York (US)
Paris Photo 2025 — with Galerie Julian Sander (FR)
2019
Paris Photo 2019 — with Galerie Julian Sander (FR)
Internationale Photoszene Köln Festival (DE)
2018
We could be Heroes — MPHQ (DE)
2016
30 Years — Kontrastfotolabor, Cologne (DE)
2014
Dark Room Red Light — The Photobook Museum, Cologne (DE), with Boris Becker and Bettina Gruber
2013
Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2013 — National Portrait Gallery, London (UK)
2011
25 Jahre Kontrastfotolabor — Atelier Martin Classen, Cologne (DE)
2006
20 Jahre Kontrastfotolabor — Cologne (DE)
2004
Show me your sexy urbanity + End of Cool — Altes Polizeipräsidium, Frankfurt/Main (DE)
2002/03
Bilder eines Jahres — Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (DE)

Publications

Catalogues, press texts and features on the work.

2025
Oliver Abraham. Portraits of Artists — exhibition press text, Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne (DE)
2019
Oliver Abraham — Artist Information (PDF), Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne (DE)
Freedom of Speech — exhibition press text, Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne (DE)
2013
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 — exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London (UK)
eight by ten — with Freddy Langer, "Lost Faces", Galerie Chelsea, Sylt/Kampen (DE)