Candida Höfer studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1973 to 1976 and majored in Films with Ole John; from 1976 to 1982 she studied Photography with Bernd and Hilla Becher. The influence of the latter was decisive in Candida Höfer’s shift from a more social style of photography in the 1970s to a style characterised by the starkness, simplicity and objectivity of spaces of public utility and representation, usually in the form of strict frontal takes with balanced compositions, high definition and meticulous images. Höfer photographs architectural spaces inside buildings with a great burden of history, public functions and cultural value such as libraries, archives, monuments, museums, galleries, churches, banks, etc. when they are empty, showing places and times that are usually inaccessible to the public. That turns architecture into a tangible print of the immensity of the memory that they contain. She is consistent in her work and faithful to her essence, which has made her of the one of the leading representatives of the Düsseldorf School.
In 1975 she began to exhibit at solo shows and her work has been showcased at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany, 1993); the Kunstverein Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, Germany, 1998); the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, United States, 2000); the Louvre (Paris, 2007); the Belem Cultural Centre (Lisbon, 2006); the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2008); Vigo Contemporary Art Museum (2010); the Andalusian Contemporary Art Centre (Seville, 2010); the Museum fur Neue Kunst (Friberg, Germany, 2011, 2012); and the Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2013-2014). She has also taken part in events such as Documenta 11 (Kassel, Germany, 2002), represented Germany together with Martin Kippenberger at the Venice Bienniale (2003) and was part of a group exhibition at the National Gallery of Art Washington D. C. (2016).
Candida Höfer studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1973 to 1976 and majored in Films with Ole John; from 1976 to 1982 she studied Photography with Bernd and Hilla Becher. The influence of the latter was decisive in Candida Höfer’s shift from a more social style of photography in the 1970s to a style characterised by the starkness, simplicity and objectivity of spaces of public utility and representation, usually in the form of strict frontal takes with balanced compositions, high definition and meticulous images. Höfer photographs architectural spaces inside buildings with a great burden of history, public functions and cultural value such as libraries, archives, monuments, museums, galleries, churches, banks, etc. when they are empty, showing places and times that are usually inaccessible to the public. That turns architecture into a tangible print of the immensity of the memory that they contain. She is consistent in her work and faithful to her essence, which has made her of the one of the leading representatives of the Düsseldorf School.
In 1975 she began to exhibit at solo shows and her work has been showcased at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany, 1993); the Kunstverein Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, Germany, 1998); the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, United States, 2000); the Louvre (Paris, 2007); the Belem Cultural Centre (Lisbon, 2006); the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2008); Vigo Contemporary Art Museum (2010); the Andalusian Contemporary Art Centre (Seville, 2010); the Museum fur Neue Kunst (Friberg, Germany, 2011, 2012); and the Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2013-2014). She has also taken part in events such as Documenta 11 (Kassel, Germany, 2002), represented Germany together with Martin Kippenberger at the Venice Bienniale (2003) and was part of a group exhibition at the National Gallery of Art Washington D. C. (2016).