Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City

Evelyn Hofer (American, born Germany, 1922-2009) was a highly innovative photographer whose pioneering work spanned five decades. She produced her most notable photographs for a series of photobooks, published between 1959 and 1967, that focused on European and American cities, including Florence, London, New York, Washington, DC., and a volume on the country of Spain. Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City features more than 100 vintage prints from these projects, and is the first major museum exhibition of photographer’s work in the United States in over fifty years.

Despite her prolific career, Hofer remained underrecognized in her lifetime. At a time when spontaneous black and white pictures were the hallmarks of street photography, Hofer favored the detailed precision of large-format cameras, and worked in both black and white and color. The pictures she produced for her photobook projects—portraits, architectural and landscape view—are subtle and rigorous. Working with deliberate slowness, Hofer sought to convey the essence of her subjects and the unique character and personality of these urban capitals during a period of social, structural, and economic transformation following World War II.