Inside story

Candida Höfer's powerful portraits of public spaces around the world are the subject of two new exhibitions in Berlin and Liechtenstein

- EMILY MCDERMOTT

Although many might call her an architectural photographer, Candida Höfer's speciality is portraiture - but portraits of places rather than people. Her oeuvre, developed over the last 60 years, is defined by large-format colour images of the interiors of (semi-)public spaces, ranging from 17thcentury baroque churches in Mexico and Germany to historic theatres in Buenos Aires and Moscow, white-walled exhibition spaces, libraries, staircases, and more. With a focus on the aura and personality of such spaces, especially when they are emptied of the humans for which they were built, Höfer has redefined how architecture is portrayed in photography.