Evelyn Hofer and Jordan Casteel: A Study in Portraiture and Connection

Education Intern Asher Tures explores comparisons between the works of Evelyn Hofer and Jordan Casteel By Asher Tures, Education Intern, <a href="https://www.high.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">High Museum of Art</a> The High Museum of Art’s photography exhibition <a href="https://high.org/exhibition/evelyn-hofer-eyes-on-the-city/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City</a>, on view through August 13, shows a broad range of photographic collections by Hofer documenting countries and cities in Europe and North America. One eye-catching aspect of the exhibition is the portraiture, displaying people not in rigid, structured poses but in a more natural and relaxed state, demonstrating their comfort and awareness with the artist (fig. 1). <img alt="a group emerges from a doorway on the left into a hall with brick floors. Three women are in dress uniform, another is in a fancier dress, and a man in the back wears a suit." src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*0UOevaCGWzwvIE3AgiKckQ.jpeg" style="height:892px; width:700px" /> Fig 1: Evelyn Hofer (American, born Germany, 1922; active New York; died Mexico, 2009), Santo Domingo in New York, 1964, gelatin silver print, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, gift of the Hall Family Foundation, 2019.39.7. © Estate of Evelyn Hofer. Some of the works, and specifically portraits, that Hofer created in the 1950s and 1960s centered on life in the city, capturing a calmer, more contemplative moment than the speed, motion, and bustle of the city that were the primary focus points of photographic practice.<a href="https://medium.com/high-museum-of-art/evelyn-hofer-and-jordan-casteel-a-study-in-portraiture-and-connection-7d7ed313c2f1#_edn1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">[1]</a> Hofer’s use of a larger camera may not have allowed her the rapid pace of many of her contemporaries, but it provided her with a rare chance to connect with her subjects. <a href="https://medium.com/high-museum-of-art/evelyn-hofer-and-jordan-casteel-a-study-in-portraiture-and-connection-7d7ed313c2f1">Click Here</a>