Candida Hofer - A Monograph

This is the most complete volume available on one of the outstanding representatives of new German photography.

Ever since embarking on her first photographic projects in the early 1970s, Candida Höfer has been primarily interested in what could best be termed public space – interiors, such as libraries, foyers, museums, club houses or, more rarely, urban scenarios such as public squares, streets or zoos.

Candida Höfer’s relationship to architecture is fully in keeping with the New Objectivity tradition. Her photographs of public spaces are almost sober and ascetic in feel – especially as she forgoes any spectacular staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance with a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality.

Even when Höfer’s photographs present significant works of renowned architects or designers, her incorruptible and consistently laconic approach means that the architectural mind in question takes a back seat to the photographer.

Candida Höfer was born in 1944. She was a student at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art and studied film under Ole John before going on to study photography under Bernd Becher. She has taken part in many group exhibitions and has held countless solo shows, most recently at Documenta XI, where her Zwölf–Twelve cycle was displayed. She is one of the greats of the international photographic and art community.

Michael Krüger, who contributes the penetrating introductory text, is Director of the Munich-based publishing company Carl Hanser Verlag, and the author of several critically acclaimed novels.