Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a renowned photographer known for her exploration of public spaces and architecture. In her career she transitioned from portraiture to focusing on spaces like libraries and museums. She is a former student of
Bernd and Hilla Becher. Like other Becher students, Höfer's work is known for technical perfection and a strictly conceptual approach. Her work explores the ways in which institutional architecture shapes and directs human experience. Höfer's technical approach is reflective of her goals as an artist.
From 1997 to 2000, she taught as professor at the
Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Höfer is the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, as part of the
Sony World Photography Awards
The World Photography Organisation is a British company best known for its annual Sony World Photography Awards. The company was founded in 2007 by Scott Gray, and is now a subsidiary of Gray's art events company Creo.
The World Photography Org ...
. She is based in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
.
Early life and education
Candida Höfer was born in 1944 in
Eberswalde
Eberswalde () is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in Brandenburg in north-eastern Germany, about northeast of Berlin. Population 42,144 (census in June 2005).
The town is often called Waldstadt (forest town), beca ...
,
Province of Brandenburg.
Höfer is a daughter of the German journalist
Werner Höfer. From 1964 to 1968 Höfer studied at the
Kölner Werkschulen (Cologne Academy of Fine and Applied Arts). After graduation, she began working for newspapers as a portrait photographer, producing a series on Liverpudlian poets.
[ From 1970 to 1972, she studied daguerreotypes while working as an assistant to Werner Bokelberg in Hamburg.] She later attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1973 to 1982, where she studied film under Ole John and, from 1976, photography under Bernd Becher. Along with Thomas Ruff, she was one of the first of Becher's students to use color, showing her work as slide projections. While at school, she conceived a film she shot jointly with Tony Morgan in the Düsseldorf ice cream parlour Da Forno in 1975.
Work
Höfer initially worked with black-and-white photography, such as with ''Flipper'' (1973), a large photo-collage consisting of 47 gelatin silver prints. The images all depict pinball machines in arcades and pubs, sometimes seen with players and sometimes by themselves. Shortly afterwards, she began working on her 'Türken in Deutschland' (Turks in Germany) series (1973–1979), which follows Turkish migrant families in their new German homes. It was during this period that Höfer became interested in color, as she felt it suited her works better, and in interior spaces and their impact on the people who inhabit them and vice versa.
Höfer began taking color photographs of interiors of public buildings, such as offices, banks, and waiting rooms, in 1979. Her breakthrough to fame came with a series of photographs showing guest workers in Germany, after which she concentrated on the subjects ''Interiors'', ''Rooms'' and ''Zoological Gardens''. Höfer specializes in large-format photographs of empty interiors and social spaces that capture the "psychology of social architecture". Her photographs are taken from a classic straight-on frontal angle or seek a diagonal in the composition. She tends to shoot each actionless room from an elevated vantage point near one wall so that the far wall is centered within the resulting image. From her earliest creations, she has been interested in representing public spaces such as museums, libraries, national archives or opera houses devoid of all human presence. Höfer's imagery has consistently focused on these depopulated interiors since the 1980s. Höfer groups her photographs into series that have institutional themes as well as geographical ones, but the formal similarity among her images is their dominant organizing principle.
In her ''Zoologische Gärten'' series (1991), Höfer shifted her focus away from interiors to zoos in Germany, Spain, England, France and the Netherlands. Implementing her typically descriptive style, Höfer's images again seek to deconstruct the role institutions play in defining the viewer's gaze by documenting animals in their caged environments.
In 2001, for ''Douze-Twelve'', commissioned by the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle in Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
and later shown at Documenta
Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.
Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...
11, Höfer photographed all 12 casts of Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
's '' The Burghers of Calais'' in their installations in various museums and sculpture gardens.[David Galloway (15 June 2002)]
Documenta 11: the retro-ethno-techno exhibition
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. From 2004 to 2007, she traveled the world to photograph conceptual artist On Kawara
was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in SoHo, New York City, from 1965 until his death. He took part in many solo and group Art exhibition, exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976.
Early life
Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on ...
's iconic ''Date Paintings'' in the homes of private collectors. In 2005, Höfer embarked upon a project at the Musée du Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
, documenting its various galleries, examining not only the sacred art they exhibit but also their individual design, arches, tiles and embellishments, with spectators and tourists entirely absent.
Interpretation in Institutional Photography
Candida Höfer's photography, particularly her ''Libraries'' series, extends beyond architectural documentation to provide a detailed examination of institutional culture. The works parallel Sharon Macdonald's ethnographic study of the Science Museum in London. Höfer's images, marked by the absence of human presence, enable viewers to focus on the undisturbed tranquility and vibrant colors of spaces such as the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
and the Whitney Museum. This "architecture of absence" draws attention to the unseen labor and institutional decisions that shape visitor experiences. Her large-scale photographs capture the essence of library spaces, emphasizing architectural beauty, intricate interior details, and the interplay of light and shadow. Höfer's precise use of symmetry and composition enhances the visual impact and documents the cultural and historical significance of these spaces. By highlighting architectural elements and institutional structures, her work reveals the complex interplay between architecture, institutional directives, and cultural representation. Höfer's focus on textures and materials adds a tactile dimension, intending to encourage viewers to imagine the physical sensations of these grand spaces. Some readings of her work adopt a ethnographic and thematic organization enhancing an understanding of how institutional spaces are designed and experienced, exploring the social architecture and cultural narratives inherent within these environments.
Exhibitions
Höfer's first solo exhibition was in 1975 at the Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf. Since then, Höfer has had solo exhibitions in museums throughout Europe and the United States, including the Centro de Fotografía at the Universidad de Salamanca, the Galerie de l’École des Beaux-Arts in Valenciennes, the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
, the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, the Kunsthaus Hamburg, the Museum of Contemporary Photography
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...
(MoCP)), the Museum Folkwang
Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
, and the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn She has also had an exhibition at the Portikus in Frankfurt am Main. She was a part of the "German Photography: Documentation and Introspection" at Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in 1990 as one of nine artists highlighted. In 2001 she was part of "Minimalismos: Un Signo de los Tiempos" at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...
. She was included by Okwui Enwezor in Documenta
Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.
Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...
11 in Kassel in 2002. In 2003 the artist represented Germany with the late Martin Kippenberger in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, which was curated by Julian Heynen. The first comprehensive North American survey of her work was shown under the title ''Architecture of Absence'' at Norton Museum of Art in 2006. That same year, she had a solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin.
History
Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...
, Dublin. She is currently represented by Sean Kelly Gallery and Kotaro Nukaga in Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
Art market
The highest price reached by one of her photographs was when ''Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra IV'' (2006) sold by £80,500 ($121,233) at Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, on 12 February 2015.
Personal life
Höfer lives and works in Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
.
Awards
*2015: Cologne Fine Art Prize
*2018: Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, Sony World Photography Awards
The World Photography Organisation is a British company best known for its annual Sony World Photography Awards. The company was founded in 2007 by Scott Gray, and is now a subsidiary of Gray's art events company Creo.
The World Photography Org ...
*2022: Achievement in Architecture, Lucie Awards
*2024: Käthe Kollwitz Prize
Collections
Höfer's work is held in the following permanent public collections:
*Jewish Museum
A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
Notable Jewish museums include:
Albania
* Solomon Museum, Berat
Australia
* Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...
, New York
* Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
*Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York
* International Center for Photography, New York
* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
*Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
, London
See also
* List of German women artists
This is a list of women artists who were born in Germany or whose artworks are closely associated with that country.
A
* Louise Abel (1841–1907), German-born Norwegian photographer
* Tomma Abts (born 1967), abstract painter
* Elisabeth von Ad ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*Grave, Johannes. "Irreplaceable Works: Non-Substitutability, Market Failure, and Access Needs."
External links
*
ICA, University of Pennsylvania exhibition (05/2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofer, Candida
1944 births
Living people
People from Eberswalde
German architectural photographers
Photographers from Cologne
People from the Province of Brandenburg
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
German contemporary artists
20th-century German photographers
21st-century German photographers
21st-century German artists
20th-century German women photographers
21st-century German women photographers
Academic staff of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design
Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany