Hatje Cantz Verlag Mommsenstraße 27 Tel. +49 (0)30 3464678-23 Press Contact: Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH Managing Director: 10629 Berlin Fax +49 (0)30 3289042-62 presse@hatjecantz.de HRB 118521 Thomas Ganske Deutschland www.hatjecantz.de Reg.-Gericht Hamburg Dr. Sven Fund UST-ID-Nr.: DE143580256

ELFIE SEMOTAN A FEMININE AESTHETIC “Today people listen to me because I have something to say. Before, people listened to me because they liked looking at me.” Elfie Semotan is one of today’s most prominent photographers, and she has been revolutionizing fashion and advertising photography through her work since the 1960s. Semotan has mastered the art of storytelling through photographs like no other. Her portraits of prominent personalities from the cultural scene, as well as her collaboration and friendship with Helmut Lang, have made her world-famous. Berlin, May 15, 2019 ― Semotan began her career as a model in Paris. Her partner at the time, the Canadian photographer and filmmaker John Cook, introduced her to photography in the late 1960s and awakened her passion for working behind the camera. Above all, she appropriated the art of telling stories through photographs: pictures that look like film stills, compositions of images and people, which always tells a story that goes beyond what appears on the surface. Her advertising photos and her portraits of celebrities from the fields of art, film, and theater—such as Louise Bourgeois, Willem Dafoe, Elfriede Jelinek, Milla Jovovich, Maria Lassnig, Martin Kippenberger, Udo Kier, Jonathan Meese, and Daniel Richter—and last, but not least, her exclusive collaboration and friendship with Helmut Lang have made the photographer famous around the world. While the fashion designer’s minimalist design influenced international fashion, Elfie Semotan’s revealing advertising and fashion photography for Helmut Lang, as well as for international magazines such as Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, The New Yorker, and Vogue created a new photographic aesthetic. Like her German contemporaries Barbara Klemm, Herlinde Koelbl, and Sibylle Bergemann, the Austrian photographer used open space in her photographs; at the same time, she conquered the medium (long exclusively the territory of men, like most of the artistic disciplines) for herself and asserted her own feminine perspective.

Elfie Semotan (*1941 in Wels, Austria) graduated from the Hetzendorf school of fashion design in Vienna and began her career as a model in Paris. In 1969 she returned to Vienna to work as a fashion, advertising, and portrait photographer. Her collaboration with the fashion designer Helmut Lang and her campaigns for Römerquelle and Palmers made her world-famous. Semotan was married to the artists Kurt Kocherscheidt (1943-1992) and Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997). The series Das Floß der Medusa (Medusa’s raft, 1996) revealed their mutual influence upon each other and was exemplary of Semotan’s and Kippenberger’s artistic collaboration. In 2011 she was awarded the Austrian Order of Merit for Science and Art. Semotan divides her time among New York, Vienna, and Jennersdorf.

The retrospective Contradiction at C/O Berlin will open on June 7 at 7 p.m., and runs until September 7. It is the first extensive show outside of Austria to honor Semotan’s work. The exhibition and the eponymous Hatje Cantz publication present a cross-section of the photographer’s multifaceted oeuvre.

ELFIE SEMOTAN CONTRADICTION Graphic design by Marc Naroska, text(s) by Henri Cole, Monika Faber, Felix Hoffmann, Helmut Lang, Sven Michaelsen, Sarah Mower, Sophie Pechhacker, Martin Prinzhorn, Christian Reder, Esther Ruelfs, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Stefano Tonchi German, English 2019. 336 pp., 400 ills. hardcover ISBN 978-3-7757-4607-6 48,00 EUR

ABOUT HATJE CANTZ Hatje Cantz is a groundbreaking international publishing company specializing in art, architecture, and photography. Since 1945 Hatje Cantz has been using its profound expertise and enthusiasm for craftsmanship to produce and publish books of the highest quality. Especially in the digital age, Hatje Cantz regards itself an element linking museums, artists, galleries, collectors, and art lovers. Conveying knowledge - in terms of both content and visuals - as well as an enthusiasm for art is always at the heart of our engagement. In keeping with our ambition to make it possible to experience art beyond the medium of the book, Hatje Cantz has launched the EDITION HATJE CANTZ as we continue to expand our portfolio of strictly limited, signed editions featuring works on paper, photographic works of art, and art objects. www.hatjecantz.de PRESS CONTACT Jennifer Berndt Max Schadow Press Director Junior PR Manager (on parental leave) presse@hatjecantz.de

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