VNH Gallery is delighted to announce the solo exhibition by German artist Candida Höfer (born in 1944 in Eberswalde) which comprises eight photographs that are symbolic of the artist’s practice and that was built as a tribute to her work done in Paris. Overall, this exhibition introduces the one that will be held in the main space of the gallery next Spring (2019) where Candida Höfer will present a selection of recent photographies made in the French capital at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, in collaboration with VNH Gallery.

During the 70s, Candida Höfer was a student of the photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Fine Arts Academy of Düsseldorf and that is where she soon started developing such a specific esthetic which consists in shooting buildings from the point of view of their interiors and where the human abscence is surprising. Thereupon, it is interesting to underline that this Dusseldorf school historically succeeds the humanistic period in photography where, as its name suggests it, photographers have paid much attention to the human figure which had suffered so much from the war.

Throughout her images of theatres, libraries or empty churches, Candida Höfer sublimes these places through the effort made in objectiveness and detachment, both being strong characteristics of the Düsseldorf School (Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff). From the Becher couple, Candida keeps this profound interest for buildings’ interior architecture - in opposition to the Bechers which solely took photographs of the exterior facades - giving the viewer this grandiose impression, outcome of the concern given to the lighting, the framing, the symmetries as well as to the harmony that are all inevitably emerge form this architectural masterpieces.

Candida Höfer’s work appears in numerous collections such as the selection below : Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (France), Centro de Fotografia Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanque (Espagne), Centre Pompidou, Paris (France), Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Francfort (Allemagne), DG Bank Collection The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (USA), California Kunsthalle Basel, Bâle (Switzerland), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (Autriche), Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg (Allemagne), Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (Allemagne), Museum Folkwang, Fotografische Sammlung, Essen (Allemagne), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (Espagne), Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA), Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn (Allemagne), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (USA), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (USA), Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg (Allemagne), St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, (USA), Tate Modern, Londres (UK), ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (Allemagne).