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Candida Hofer: Paris OperaStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionCandida H fer's works have something timeless about them, and opera is perhaps the most timeless cultural delight. Having dedicated a photographic series to the cathedrals of knowledge that are libraries, H fer in her most recent cycle captures opera houses, the palaces of performing arts. H fer's earlier pictures of public spaces--libraries, lecture halls, museums, meeting rooms--forever devoid of people, made us sense the presence of those absent. Her opera photographs take us one step beyond: empty foyers, orchestras, stages, wings, and boxes make us imagine both theprotagonists--performers and audience--and the fictitious figures, plots, and places that populate these venues during a night at the opera. In her most recent publication Candida H fer portrays two Paris opera houses that are exemplary for their age and time: the neoclassicist Palais Garnier (1875), original Phantom of the Opera site, and the modern-style Op ra Bastille (1989). |