Thomas Struth
German photographer. He trained at
the DüsseldorfAcademy (1973–80). Bernd and Hilla Becher's direct
documentary images of the industrial landscape, constructed through strict
visual procedures, had a strong influence on Struth's later methodology. His
first exhibited works were black-and-white images of streets in Japan, Europe
and America, highly constructed and carefully framed images that recall the
topographical vistas of Paris by the 19th-century photographers Eugène Atget
and Charles Marville. These works communicate what is both specific and yet
unremarkable about urban space and raise questions about objectivity –Sachlichkeit –
in photography. In the mid-1980s, after a period of collaboration
with the psychoanalyst Ingo Hartmann studying family snapshots, Struth embarked
on a series of portraits of individuals and family groups, using the same
type of large-format view camera that he had used for his architectural work.
These works were again highly constructed, urbane portraits, showing character
but not revealing personality. Through his work with portraiture, Struth
developed an interest in Renaissance painting, which eventually led to the series of photographs
for which he is best known, the Museum Photographs. Works such
as Art Institute of Chicago, I (1991; see 1993–4 exh. cat., p.
57) set up a relationship between the viewer and the painting. Other works,
such asStanza di Rafaello II (see 1993–4 exh. cat., p. 61), show a
frenetic blurred crowd that underlines the relationship between the viewer and
the painting. In 1993 Struth became a professor of photography at the
Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe.
Thomas Struth
began to study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the autumn of 1973, entering
into Gerhard Richter’s class in 1974. Initially Struth was interested in
photography as a source for his paintings. In order to learn more about the
different possibilities of the medium, he made some experiments photographing
passers by in the street with different exposures and compositions, using a
35mm camera. The city functioned as an architectural backdrop for photographing
the individual figure. The idea, Struth recalls, was to some extent influenced
by the sculptures of George Segal, which he had seen at the Museum Ludwig in
Cologne, and Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings of imaginary urban
spaces.
Each year, students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf presented a body of new work in an exhibition called the Rundgang. For the exhibition in February 1976, Struth decided to shift the focus of the photographic work and concentrate on the street itself rather than the figure within an urban context. He made a grid comprising forty-nine photographs of streets in Düsseldorf, seven by seven, each photograph structured around a central perspective.
Struth photographed streets all over Düsseldorf, working on weekends and always with the camera placed on a tripod in the middle of the street. It was important to Struth that the photographs were a systematic documentation of ordinary streets in an unremarkable, reconstructed German city rather than the result of personal selection.
Each year, students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf presented a body of new work in an exhibition called the Rundgang. For the exhibition in February 1976, Struth decided to shift the focus of the photographic work and concentrate on the street itself rather than the figure within an urban context. He made a grid comprising forty-nine photographs of streets in Düsseldorf, seven by seven, each photograph structured around a central perspective.
Struth photographed streets all over Düsseldorf, working on weekends and always with the camera placed on a tripod in the middle of the street. It was important to Struth that the photographs were a systematic documentation of ordinary streets in an unremarkable, reconstructed German city rather than the result of personal selection.
Interesting how he has come from painting
to photography
his landing page on his website
I particularly like the detail in the
picture. His new photographs are in colour, which I much prefer are of the
Kennedy Space Centre and other various construction sites. It is an interesting
series as It shows the spaces where space ships are being built, These ships
that are designed to go into outer space where everything is open, rather than
in a big enclosed space.
Struth had met
Hideo and Keiko Shimada whilst Hideo was a student of Gotthard Graubner at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Shimada had an agreement with his father that when he
was thirty years old he would return to Yamaguchi to work in the family
company. Following their return to Japan, they decided to keep in touch with
contemporary art by opening a gallery. At their suggestion, Struth sent them
some contact sheets of his street photographs. They immediately sent back a
postcard inviting him to make an exhibition—already proposing the date for the
opening on April 14, 1986!
Struth spent three weeks in Yamaguchi, where the exhibition at the Shimada Gallery took place, then one week in Kyoto and one week in Tokyo. Japan offered an opportunity for Struth to extend further his project to photograph urban structures and space. He made a first group of work in Japan that he considered to be of interest, in the district of Shinjuku in Tokyo in 1986, picking up on some of the pictorial devices he had used in New York and in Europe. At the same time, he recognised that working in Japan necessitated a further loosening of a systematic approach to picture making.
Struth spent three weeks in Yamaguchi, where the exhibition at the Shimada Gallery took place, then one week in Kyoto and one week in Tokyo. Japan offered an opportunity for Struth to extend further his project to photograph urban structures and space. He made a first group of work in Japan that he considered to be of interest, in the district of Shinjuku in Tokyo in 1986, picking up on some of the pictorial devices he had used in New York and in Europe. At the same time, he recognised that working in Japan necessitated a further loosening of a systematic approach to picture making.
In 1988 Struth
returned to live and work in Italy for three months. He stayed in Naples and in
Rome, where he photographed large apartment blocks built in the 1950s and 1960s
which he had noticed during his earlier time in the city. He also made a
portrait of the Messina family.
Reflecting on the experience of photographing within the dense forest of structures and signs in Tokyo, he concentrated in Naples on the accumulation of living spaces in the city, as well as making a number of photographs that integrated religious and secular buildings. Whilst a few of the Naples photographs have affinities to Struth’s earlier street photographs, the organising device of the central perspective was generally left behind in favour of more complex pictures of the urban fabric.
In Naples, Struth shared an apartment with Janice Guy and Giulia Zorzetti, a restorer of old paintings. On occasions, Struth went with Zorzetti to look at the paintings being restored. He recalls that the visits “offered a very thought-provoking encounter with the medium I had given up a decade ago. Restorers get closer to a painting than anyone has ever been since the work was originally painted. They have an intimate proximity with the manufacture of the painting, with the way the material had been manoeuvred on the surface of the canvas or wall.” On the last day of his stay in Naples, Struth made the photograph of Zorzetti and three of her colleagues, The Restorers in San Lorenzo Maggiore.
Reflecting on the experience of photographing within the dense forest of structures and signs in Tokyo, he concentrated in Naples on the accumulation of living spaces in the city, as well as making a number of photographs that integrated religious and secular buildings. Whilst a few of the Naples photographs have affinities to Struth’s earlier street photographs, the organising device of the central perspective was generally left behind in favour of more complex pictures of the urban fabric.
In Naples, Struth shared an apartment with Janice Guy and Giulia Zorzetti, a restorer of old paintings. On occasions, Struth went with Zorzetti to look at the paintings being restored. He recalls that the visits “offered a very thought-provoking encounter with the medium I had given up a decade ago. Restorers get closer to a painting than anyone has ever been since the work was originally painted. They have an intimate proximity with the manufacture of the painting, with the way the material had been manoeuvred on the surface of the canvas or wall.” On the last day of his stay in Naples, Struth made the photograph of Zorzetti and three of her colleagues, The Restorers in San Lorenzo Maggiore.
Again I really
like the symmetry involved in these images, they are reminiscent of the Becher’s
in the sense they are black and white photographs, and as stated he studied
under them, meaning he must have been influenced by them. The way they are in
black and white works with the aesthetic of ‘industrial landscape’ the grey
streets with grey buildings, all the windows the same etc. its how I feel every
time I go to London. I would also love to see these pictures in colour, as
personally I like to see colour over black and white, as it engages my eyes
more. Vibrant colours bring my eyes in and make me want to look at photographs
for longer.
I looked at his
Portraits, they are well shot and with lovely composition
This is my
favourite of the series Family Portraits 1. It is a colour photograph, and the
people just seem so characterful. I love the composition of the table leading
the eye into the image, with the two people sat across from each other, the
woman engaging the viewer and the man seems amused by something outside of the
frame. The table leads the eye to the background that can give us some idea
about who the people are. They seem wealthy with the big doorway in a big room
with red walls and a large window looking out onto greenery. There is a cabinet
behind them that alludes to wealth, and their clothes and jewellery seem well
made and expensive. However the table seems quite bare. Not polished or
varnished at all, it looks rather rough. There is a story here that is being
quietly told.
This picture reminds me of a busy
bustling train station, rather than a prestigious art gallery. I like the
slightly shower shutter speed resulting in movement blur. The people seem
trapped within the frames of the picture, they are moving around but cannot
escape. They must look around this gallery forever trapped in this frame.
I like the use of Large Format cameras
ability to make everything look so huge and yet so small at the same time. I
like that the curved lines in the top of the image complement the flat circular
space at the bottom. The people are frozen in time in awe of the architecture of
the building.
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