Keen-eyed viewers will be able to identify the pair of tall, narrow windows protruding from a tile-covered wall as a detail of the exterior of the Denver Art Museum’s quirky 1971 building.
But the rest of the half-dozen or so Colorado photographs in a solo exhibition at the Camera Obscura Gallery have more to say about the distinctive aesthetic of photographer Horst Schäfer than anything to do with the state.
Indeed, the most eye-catching of the nearly 30 black-and-white images in the exhibition depicts one of Denver’s most recognizable structures. Yet most viewers will have no idea what they are seeing until they read the accompanying label.
The enigmatic photograph presents a kind of alien, sci-fi topography of glass pyramids encased in a heavy-duty, crisscross framework. Condensation can be seen on the inside of the glass, which glows from within.
The label reveals that it is a nighttime look at the top of the arching exterior of the Boettcher Memorial Conservatory, the 1966 architectural centerpiece of the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Schäfer is at his best in such images, when he manages to find something unexpected in the seemingly familiar. It is when he takes a more straightforward approach to his subjects that his photography suffers.
Consider his banal, postcard depiction of the World Trade Center, “Mighty – The Twin Towers As Seen from the Hudson River, New York, 1996,” or a similar image of the Brooklyn Bridge framed against the twin towers. His Trade Center imagery becomes interesting only when, as at the Botanic Gardens, he moves in closer and focuses on an architectural element – the neo-gothic decorative motifs at the base of one of the towers.
The result, “Detail – Of Twin Tower’s Lower Section, New York, 1996,” will be recognizable to people who remember details of the building’s appearance, but it also can be enjoyed as simply a sinuous abstract composition.
As these examples suggest, Schafer’s strong suit is depicting architecture. His portrayals of people, such as a series of images from a trip to Transylvania, are competent but offer few of the surprises found in his best architectural work.
A native of Cologne, Germany, he began his career in 1959 as a freelance photojournalist in Düsseldorf. He immigrated to Canada, working at several jobs, including photography for a newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta.
He moved to New York City in 1961 and worked briefly for Agence France-Presse and another news agency before doing contract work for the New York Racing Association.
A striking image from this period, “Sellers – Mutuel Windows at the Aqueduct Horse Racing Track, Queens, New York, 1963,” offers a dramatic, deliberately blurred look at a swirling crowd at the famous horse track.
In 1974, Schäfer came to Denver and worked as a commercial photographer until 1978, when he became a staff photographer with the now-defunct Colorado Springs Sun, a position he held for one year.
Several of his Colorado images in the exhibition date to this time, including “Grand – Marina at Cherry Creek Reservoir, 1975,” a provocative image shot from inside the concrete structure, emphasizing its curving geometry and imbuing it with a kind of lonely nobility.
In 1980, he returned to Germany and worked for The Associated Press, first in Munich and then Nuremberg. Since 1993, he has devoted himself to his own photographic projects, including some return visits to Colorado.
His images have been published in a number of books, including “New York in the Sixties” (2004), and are contained in the collections of such institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Denver Art Museum.
If Schäfer has not changed the course of photography, he has created a commendable number of original, well-constructed images that stick in one’s memory.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Horst Schäfer’s Work in Black & White: A Retrospective”
THROUGH MAY 29|Photography exhibition|Camera Obscura Gallery, 1309 Bannock St.|Free|10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays (303-623-4059 or www.cameraobscuragallery.com)
