Thomas Ruff

The German photographer Thomas Ruff was born on February 10, 1958 in Zell am Harmersbach. From 1977 to 1985 Thomas Ruff studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the class of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Their own visual language of objective documentary photography as well as their teaching activities lead to the founding of the pioneering Düsseldorf School of Photography. Thomas Ruff's fellow students in the Becher class also include Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. Large-format photo series with a conceptual approach. In his early photographic works from the late 1970s, Thomas Ruff deals with interiors, exploring the domestic environment of his childhood. In the mid-1980s, he broke away from the purely documentary approach. He created "portrait" and "house" series that followed strict rules of composition. The sitters, for example, are shown in strict frontal view in front of a monochrome, neutral background. The surroundings are isolated. "As soon as I see a picture that interests me, I start working on it," says Thomas Ruff about his serial approach. The technical apparatus serves Ruff's reflections on perceptual processes, on photography's claim to authenticity, and on the political dimension of its use. Portrait, Starry Sky, Night of the Crime. For one of his best-known groups of works, the series "Stars" (1989-1992), Thomas Ruff uses negatives from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), whose large telescopes record the starry night sky over the Atacama Desert with the utmost precision. Ruff appropriates these photos, determines sections and enlarges them into impressive photographic works of art. The series "Night", created from 1991 onwards, shows Thomas Ruff's fascination and interest in another photographic technique and its effect: on the morning of January 17, 1991, he sees the television images of the night sky over Baghdad, which, in the typical green tone of the camera lenses with residual light amplifier, show the U.S. bombing rain on the Iraqi city and the defensive missiles, and thus the beginning of the second Gulf War. Thomas Ruff then takes his own photographs with such night vision equipment, resulting in black-and-green glowing photos that, though innocuous, immediately bring to mind crime scenes. In more recent times, Thomas Ruff has been increasingly exploring the possibilities of computer technology for his photographic works. Important contemporary photo artist. In 1992 Thomas Ruff took part in Documenta IX in Kassel and in the Venice Biennale in 1995. In 1993 Thomas Ruff receives the scholarship of the German Academy in Rome Villa Massimo. In 2003 Thomas Ruff publishes the photo volume "Nudes", for which the French writer Michel Houellebecq writes a text. Numerous museums worldwide present exhibitions of Thomas Ruff's photographic works, including the Sprengel Museum in Hanover as well as the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2007), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2011), the Haus der Kunst in Munich (2012), the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Gent (2014). In 2020/21, the K20 in Düsseldorf will present the survey show "Photography without a Camera", it will show very vividly the work of Thomas Ruff exploring the most diverse genres and historical varieties of photography. In 2021 Thomas Ruff, who is one of the most important contemporary German photo artists, will be elected to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Thomas Ruff lives and works in Düsseldorf.