Mexico as Seen by the Master Photographer Candida HöferIn 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.
