About fifty photographs by Evelyn Hofer (1922-2009), German-American contemporary photographer of William Klein and Robert Frank, who settled in New York after the Second World War, are currently exhibited at the center of GwinZegal art from Guingamp, in the Côtes-d’Armor. This is the first monograph dedicated to the photographer, still relatively unknown in France.
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Until October 16, the GwinZegal art center, located in the former prison of Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor), invites the public to rediscover the – unjustly – unknown work ofEvelyn Hofer, a photographer born in Germany in 1922, whose family fled to Spain to escape the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, eventually reaching Mexico once Franco came to power. The one that New York Times critic Hilton Kramer liked to describe in the 1970s as ” the most famous unknown photographer in the United States is now honored in his first French exhibition, co-produced with the Rouen Normandie Photographic Center (which initially hosted the exhibition), logically centered around his photographic work in New York, his adopted city.
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A photographer ahead of her time
Arrived in the Big Apple in 1946, Evelyn Hofer notably distinguished herself in the Harper’s Bazaar, rubbed shoulders with Alexey Brodovitch, artistic director of the magazine, but also Richard Lindner, Saul Steinberg, Mary McCarthy. Unlike his illustrious contemporaries such as William Klein or the famous Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, Evelyn Hofer does not practice on-the-fly photography, which nevertheless seems to be conducive to the incessant movements of the city; on the contrary, Evelyn Hofer works in a view camera, thus involving heavier equipment and a longer exposure time. His portraits of the city and its inhabitants, imbued with a pictorial classicism that goes against its time, are thus striking, because they contrast with the rhythm and unbridled speed of a modern city.
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Ahead of her time, the German-American photographer notably dabbled in color photography, still poorly regarded at the time, before being eclipsed by the pioneers of the genre, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. The exhibition therefore recaptures, in about fifty black and white and color prints, the evolution of his work in New York from the 1950s to the 1970s which were presented in the New York Times as well as Vogue or Life magazine. . Illustrated books, magazines and a short film by William Klein (Broadway by night, 1958) end up painting the portrait of this New York that Evelyn Hofer never stopped surveying.
Practical information
New York, until October 16, 2022 – GwinZegal Art Center, Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor). Wednesday to Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. FREE ENTRANCE.
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