Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff

Ruff studied photography from 1977 to 1985 with Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Art Academy), where fellow students included the photographers Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth, Angelika Wengler, and Petra Wunderlich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ruff

I like how it looks like the size of the planet Saturn, the blue is the planet and the pink/purple is space and the lines represent the rings. The composition is simple lines with strong contrasting colours. The lines of “saturns rings” are perfectly straight and horizontal .

The artist's series zycles and cassini draw from scientific sources. zycles are based on 3D renderings of mathematical curves that were inspired by Ruff's encounter with copperplate engravings found in 19th-century books on electromagnetism.^[25] Ruff translated these images via a 3D computer-modeling program, but instead of his usual flattening, gives volume to 2D. The results are large, inkjet prints on canvas of colored lines and swirls.^[26] The cassini works are based on photographic captures of saturn taken by NASA. Ruff has transformed the raw black-and-white prints with interjections of saturated colour.^[27] In the ma.r.s. series, also sourced from the NASA website, Ruff has transformed the raw black and white fragmentary representations of the planet Mars with interjections of saturated color. He also digitally changed the perspective.^[28] In addition to the large C-prints, he has experimented for the first time with 3D image-making.

I wonder if the original image was actually Saturn, this creates an exciting new visual for me as I am used to seeing pictures or simple representations of Saturn, rather than this bold view.

This looks like the surface of a planet or if water were frozen or like the surface of the inside of a shell if it was viewed really close.

I created my own simple version of jpeg using the mosaic filter in photoshop. It would be interesting to save this file over and over again as a jpeg or to print it and photocopy it again and again

This appeals to the memories of my drug induced experiences as a young adult. It is quite kaleidoscopic, perhaps he made this with chemicals or liquids reacting with light onto photographic paper.

I can see the influence of the Becher’s here, the grey sky with the mundane subject. For some reason I still like to look at mundane colour pictures such as these. I think it is because I grew up in a place where there were so many mundane buildings that I walk right past them and don’t give them a second glance, so when I am presented with a new building in a photograph to look at, I want to see all the detail in the photograph.