Candida Höfer: Eckermannstraße Hamburg, 1978

The photograph "Eckermannstrasse Hamburg", taken in 1978 belongs to Candida Höfer’s early series Türken in Deutschland [Turkish people in Germany] which was taken between 1972/73 and 1979 in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Ratingen and Hamburg. The photographer observed and documented the changes to the appearance of the city accompanied by the changes in society, which occurred alongside the increasing presence of Turkish workers and their families in public areas. Their cultural life and requirements are reflected for example in shops with special foodstuffs, in Turkish cafés and the presence of families and other groups in the parks.
In Eckermann Street in Hamburg Candida Höfer took a photograph of the interior of a grocery shop. The camera is directed frontally towards the shop counter, behind it the sales assistant – perhaps even the owner – is standing, gazing confidently in the direction of the photographer. Behind him various cans are lined up on three shelves, giving the picture an almost rhythmic structure. This already shows us the artist’s instinct for the arrangement of spatial details, which she always considers within the whole creative layout. Whereas in the series Türken in Deutschland the presence of people in rooms or in the environment played a role, Höfer no longer included them in the works which followed. Up until today she concentrates on the depiction of interior spaces, special creative forms, the relationship between function and furnishings – all of them aspects which vouch for the presence of people.

Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur