Peter Blum is pleased to announce the exhibition, Evelyn Hofer: Still Lifes, in the gallery at 99 Wooster Street.
The photographer Evelyn Hofer, born in 1922 in Marburg an der Lahn, left Germany at an early age. She was 11 years old when her father, disapproving of the fascist policies, moved the family to Switzerland and then on to Spain. Later Evelyn and her sister moved back to Switzerland and in 1942 Evelyn began to focus on photography. Here she completed two 3 month apprenticeships, first in Basel with Robert Spreng, where she learned to use an 8 x 10 camera, and then at Studio Bettina where she learned to work in 35 mm. She also took classes at this time with the noted photographer and teacher, Hans Finsler.
In 1942 the family moved to Mexico and here Hofer began her career as a freelance photographer. By 1946 Hofer had arrived in New York with assignments in fashion photography at Harper's Bazaar with Alexey Brodovitch and at Vogue with Alexander Libermann. Hofer has lived and worked in New York and Mexico since that time.
In 1959, The Stones of Florence with text by Mary Mc Carthy and photos by Evelyn Hofer, was published. For this project Hofer used a 4 x 5 camera, a format she has worked with ever since. From that time on Hofer traveled and documented the architecture, cities, landscapes and peoples of many parts of the world in a large body of photographs. Much of her work was published in books including: London Perceived, New York Proclaimed and Dublin a Portrait with V.S. Pritchett, The Presence of Spain with James Morris, and Emerson in Italy with Evelyn Barish.
From the 1980's to the late 1990's Hofer has worked on self chosen photo projects. These have included portraits, landscapes and still lifes.
The current exhibition includes a group of 8 of the Still Lifes from 1996 and 1997, the most recent works Hofer has done to date. The quality of color is produced by the dye transfer technique which Hofer has used since the early 1960's. This technique, used since 1947, is known for creating nuanced colors, depth of tone and a grainless surface. It is rarely used now and the material needed for this process has been out of production since 1994. The show also includes black and white works from the 1960's Dublin series and the 1970's London series and a selection of her Interiors from the 1980's.
Solo exhibitions include: 1994, Evelyn Hofer, Photographs, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne. 2003, z.B. Portrait, Kunstverein Münsterland, Coesfeld. 2004, z.B. Portrait, Kunstverein Erfurt. 2004, Evelyn Hofer, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau.
The definitive book "Evelyn Hofer" by Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, was published in 2004.
