Natural and cultural forms become vessels for belief, shaped by collective symbolism and personal experience. The works consider how ordinary objects acquire significance through memory, association and the human desire to find meaning, protection or reassurance in the material world. Their meanings are neither fixed nor universal, but shaped by the experiences and beliefs we bring to them.
Hoffmann explores the space between what an object is and what we understand it to represent. Through photography, he examines how familiar subjects shift between observation, memory and interpretation. Hoffmann works with a 4 × 5 inch large-format camera, exposing individual sheets of black-and-white film that he subsequently develops in his studio. This deliberate, methodical process demands careful attention to composition, light and exposure. Through isolation, scale and fine detail, Hoffmann transforms familiar subjects, revealing qualities that might otherwise go unnoticed. A leaf, flower or preserved object can become something between a botanical specimen, a portrait and a symbolic form. This ambiguity is central to his practice, inviting viewers to look beyond an object’s literal identity.
Working primarily with medium- and large-format analogue photography, Hoffmann produces archival pigment and platinum-palladium prints.
Platinum–Palladium Printing
Alongside archival pigment printing, Hoffmann works with platinum–palladium, a nineteenth-century photographic process in which light-sensitive platinum and palladium salts are applied by hand to fine cotton paper. Each sheet is individually coated, exposed and processed, forming an image within the fibres of the paper.Hoffman's photographs are held in institutional, corporate and private collections, including the National Archives, Washington, D.C., Insight Partners, and Aqualand Group. Please email hello@8wallgallery.org for enquiries.
