Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Candida Hofer presents portraits of public spaces through lens of absence
German artist Candida Höfer's "Stiftsbibliothek St.Gallen III" (2021) is one of 14 photographs on view as part of her solo exhibition, "RENASCENCE," at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul. Courtesy of the artist, Kukje Gallery
By Park Han-sol
German artist’s 'empty' photographs of renovated architecture seen in new light after pandemic
Candida Höfer is a photographer who specializes in portraiture with a twist. Her subjects aren’t faces, but vast, empty spaces, where wear and tear merely hint at human presence without ever revealing the actual occupants.
For the last five decades, the German photographer has trained her lens on the deserted interiors of public buildings around the world, where time seems to stand still. From the 16th-century Olympic Theater in Italy and the National Library of France to the State Hermitage Museum in Russia and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, she has immortalized their silent stories within her strikingly restrained compositions.
In her new exhibition, “RENASCENCE,” at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul, Höfer documents four sites that embody a sense of revival in one way or another. Some have been reborn after centuries through renovations during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others have been revisited as her photographic subjects after 20 years.
Candida Höfer's "Musée Carnavalet Paris XI" (2020) / Courtesy of the artist, Kukje Gallery
The spiritual aura emanating from the photographed museum, opera house and abbey library, showcased across the gallery’s two floors, is captured through the same signature methodology that has guided her practice for decades.
She minimizes her own intervention by foregoing any lighting equipment during the shoot and refraining from post-processing. Instead, she relies solely on naturally available light, long exposures and her keen eye for detail to convey the essence of absence at the moment.
Installation view of Candida Höfer's "RENASCENCE" at Kukje Gallery / Newsis
Upon entering the first floor, visitors are welcomed by the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. Inside its centuries-old mansion, Höfer directs her lens toward two distinct architectural elements: the new serpentine steel-and-wood staircase and a stately mural commissioned for the ballroom in the early 1900s. This juxtaposition of features from two different eras underscores the tapestry of temporal layers contained within the museum.
Such a focus on capturing the subtle residues of time in refurbished spaces continues in her images of other vacant cultural landmarks across Europe: the ruby-colored auditorium at the Komische Oper and the modernist New National Gallery in Berlin, as well as the frescoed Abbey Library of Saint Gall in Switzerland.
For the last five decades, Candida Höfer has trained her lens on the uninhabited interiors of public buildings around the world, where time seems to stand still. Newsis
After living through the pandemic years — often described in terms of “rupture” or “hiatus” — it may come as natural for viewers to find new meaning in the octogenarian photographer’s meticulous documentation of architectural regeneration and renewal.
In her succinct speech at a recent press preview, Höfer acknowledged that the global crisis might have altered how others perceive human-built spaces and their absence in her works.
“But that wasn’t the case for me,” she said at the gallery. “The pandemic is in our heads, in our perception — not in our spaces. Of course, we may see the images differently through our personal experiences of the pandemic, but spaces [simply] remain as spaces.”
“RENASCENCE” runs through July 28.