Details

Title

Waitress, Garrick Club, London

Artist/Maker

Evelyn Hofer (American, born Germany, 1922; active New York; died Mexico, 2009)

Date

1962

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 14 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches Overall (Mat): 22 x 18 inches

Credit

Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser in honor of Brett Abbott

Accession #

2016.458

Location

Currently not on view

Called by a New York Times critic “the most famous unknown photographer in America,” Evelyn Hofer explored the relationships between people and their environment in a series of photo books devoted to various cities in Europe and America. She was especially noted for her keen ability to capture her sitters’ bearing, expression, and dress in a way that revealed the subtle imprint of class, labor, and place on them. This work, made for her 1962 book London Perceived, shows a mature waitress standing proudly but with a certain tentativeness behind her beautifully set table in London’s oldest “gentlemen’s club,” which remains exclusively male today.

Image Copyright

© Estate of Evelyn Hofer.