PHOTO: Candida Höfer-Contexts.A Dresden Reflection

Candida Höfer began taking color photographs of interiors of public buildings, such as offices, banks, and waiting rooms, in 1979 while studying in Düsseldorf. Höfer specialises 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.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kupferstich-Kabinett Archive

The exhibition “Contexts. A Dresden Reflection” presents new works by Candida Höfer. Her large-format photographs were created in 2023 as a project of Semper Oper Dresden and show rooms of the Semperoper Dresden, which in the exhibition enter into dialogue with works from the Kupferstich-Kabinett. Each of Höfer’s 14 photographs represents a specific context of her photographic-artistic practice. They show spaces of the Semperoper, such as the foyer or the stage, which are accessible to the public, but also provide insights into places of rehearsal, storage and further work at the opera, which are usually hidden from the outside world. These themes shape the artist’s view of cultural representation architectures worldwide and find a congenial continuation in the series Semper Oper Dresden. In collaboration with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the view is now also opened to the museum as a place of order of spaces for researching, collecting, archiving, exhibiting and working for the creation of culture. In the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Höfer’s works for the Semperoper meet woodcuts, copper engravings and etchings by Albrecht Dürer, Daniel Hopfer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and other artists. When juxtaposing Höfer’s visual language with the pictorial languages of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, differences as well as similarities emerge in the way artists think about architectures as places of cultural rituals. On the one hand, the dialogue between contemporary works and the works in the collection creates a connection to graphic representations of space in the surface. On the other hand, the venue of the exhibition itself is conceptualized through the work with the architectural office Kuehn Malvezzi. The interplay with contexts enables the painting to enjoy the openness of contemplation that characterizes Höfer’s work. Born in Eberswalde, Germany in 1944, Candida Höfer attended the Kunstacademie Düsseldorf from 1973 to 1982. Whilst there she studied film with the Danish filmmaker Ole John and photography under the influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also taught noted Düsseldorf School photographers Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Axel Hütte and Thomas Ruff. Known for her meticulously composed, large-scale color images of architectural interiors, Höfer’s oeuvre explores the structure, presentation, and influence of space. Interested in the psychological impact of design and the contrast between a room’s intended and actual use, Höfer has focused her lens on cultural and institutional buildings such as libraries, hotels, museums, concert halls, and palaces. Whilst devoid of people, the images allow us to consider the role of their missing inhabitants. The large-scale nature of the work invites the viewer to linger over the architectural details and contemplate the subtle shifts in light that make up the character of the space. On her decision to exclude people from her photographs, Höfer has said, “…it became apparent to me that what people do in these spaces – and what these spaces do to them – is clearer when no one is present, just as an absent guest is often the subject of a conversation.”

Photo: Candida Höfer, Semper Oper Dresden V 2023, © Candida Höfer, Courtesy the artist and Kupferstich-Kabinett

Info: Curator: Doreen Mende, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Residenzschloss, Taschenberg 2, Dresden, Germany, Duration: 22/3-21/7/2024, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-18:00, https://kupferstich-kabinett.skd.museum/