Candida Höfer: Bologna Series

by Candida Höfer, Filippo Maggia

German photographer Candida Höfer makes large-format photographs of empty interiors and social spaces that capture the "psychology of social architecture." In this small volume, her photographs of libraries maintain their monumental feel. They are sober and restrained, disturbed by neither visitors nor users, though Höfer forgoes any staging of the locations. As Michael Kimmelman writes in The New York Times , "Ms. Höfer is a straight photographer whose humanity and improvisatory spirit come across if we are patient enough to appreciate the serendipity of her light, the subtlety of her color and the quiet, melancholy pleasure she seems to take in finding, as if almost by chance, poetry in institutional form."
Born in 1944, German photographer Candida Höfer is a former student of Bernd and Hilla Becher's at the Dusseldorf Art Academy. Her work was recently seen at a one-person show at the ICA Philadelphia.

Genres: Photography

68 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Candida Höfer (German, b.1944) is a photographer known for her large-format images of architectural interiors, which address the psychological environment of social and cultural institutions by acknowledging how public spaces are designed to accommodate and inform the public. After completing studies at the Cologne Werkschule, she enrolled in the Düsseldorf School of Art, where she was taught by Bernd and Hilla Becher, heavily influenced by the formal qualities of the austere documentary photography they endorsed.

Along with fellow German artists Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, and Thomas Ruff, Höfer's work became internationally recognized in the 1980s, and her subject matter expanded to include a myriad of places rooted in cultural formation and preservation, including museums, libraries, universities, theaters, civic centers, and historic sites. She has held numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States, and her work has been included in several group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Documenta XI in Kassel, and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. In 2003, Höfer represented Germany in the Venice Biennale with fellow compatriot, Martin Kippenberger. She lives and works in Cologne, Germany.