Candida Höfer in Mexiko

Mexico as Seen by the Master Photographer Candida Höfer In 2014, Candida Höfer (b. Eberswalde, Germany, 1944; lives and works in Cologne) traveled through Mexico and photographed the interiors of old and new libraries, theaters, churches, poorhouses, and museums in nine cities. Generally organized by symmetry around a central axis, the compositions show deserted rooms, a characteristic feature of Höfer’s work. The best-known exponent of the school of Hilla and Bernd Becher, who taught photography in Düsseldorf, she pursues her personal vision of the photographic representation of public spaces; beyond the functional significance of the settings, the pictures from Mexico convey a sense of timelessness and resistance to change. Other motifs and perspectives reveal a “new” Candida Höfer at work: old-fashioned offices, weather-beaten walls, and simple bodegas as well as a few deftly captured details of façades and floors.