The photographs of Erwin Olaf, who was born in the Netherlands in 1959, have captivated audiences far from the chilly North. At 18 years old, Olaf left home to study journalism in Utrecht. It was soon clear to him that written reporting was not his strong suit. A professor who noticed his difficulties introduced him to photography and a passion was born. In his 20s, Olaf’s provocative portraits of semi-nude subjects brought notoriety. For “Chessmen,” an evocative black-and-white series of humans posing as chess pieces, Olaf won 1988’s Young European Photographer competition. Since then, his images have appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, the Moscow FotoMuseum, and the Groningen Museum, and he’s done advertising campaigns for Levi’s and Microsoft. The Edwyn Houk Gallery is now exhibiting a selection of Olaf’s photographs “centered on the concept of performance.” It draws on a four-decade career. —Jack Sullivan