Evelyn Hofer

German-American photographer Evelyn Hofer (1922–2009) routinely spent several months in the cities she photographed for her books of the 1950s and ’60s, published with renowned authors such as Mary McCarthy and V.S. Pritchett. In titles such as New York Proclaimed (1965) and Dublin, A Portrait (1967), Hofer combines portraiture, city and country views, still lifes and larger interior shots to create complex images of these metropolises.
From this perspective, Begegnungen / Encounters explores the idea of the “portrait” throughout Hofer’s oeuvre, in series on New York, Dublin and Washington; images of artists and their studios; selected photo-essays for magazines; the extended projects People of Soglio and Basque People; as well as previously unseen New York photos of Marlene Dietrich’s home and Andy Warhol’s Factory.

The starting point for this book is Evelyn Hofer’s Dublin: A Portrait, which enjoyed great popularity upon its original publication in 1967, and featured an in-depth essay by the well-known British critic and memoirist V.S. Pritchett. Dublin: A Portrait is an example of Evelyn Hofer’s (1922–2009) perhaps most important body of work, namely her city portraits—books that present comprehensive prose texts by renowned authors alongside her self-contained visual essays with their own narratives. Dublin: A Portrait was the last book published in this legendary series.
This newly conceived edition of Dublin focuses on the photos Hofer took on behalf of the publisher Harper & Row in 1965 and 1966. In Dublin Hofer repeatedly turned her camera to sights of the city, but mainly to the people who constituted its essence. She made numerous portraits—of writers and public figures, or unknown people in the streets. Her portraits give evidence of an intense, respectful engagement with her subjects, who participate as equal partners in the process of photographing.

The starting point for this publication is the 1965 book New York Proclaimed, which features an in-depth essay by V.

S. Pritchett and photos by Evelyn Hofer (1922–2009), and which enjoyed great popularity upon its original publication. New York Proclaimed is an example of Hofer’s perhaps most important body of work, her city portrait collections: books that present comprehensive prose texts by renowned authors alongside her self-contained visual essays with their own narratives.

This newly conceived New York focuses on Hofer’s photos of the 1960s as well as previously unpublished images from the early 1970s. In Hofer’s photos of the street and (semi-) public spaces, people and architecture become symbols of a particular time and place.

New York contains a new essay by John Haskell that posits possible stories behind Hofer’s photos and draws connections between images taken over the course of ten years.