Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth is a contemporary photographer whose work captures the complexity of a range of subjects including urban scenes, garden plants, Hawaiian rain forests, and intimate portraits. One of his best-known projects is the Museum Photographs. In these large-format, colour-saturated photographs, Struth captures individuals and crowds looking at famous works of Western art in the world’s most popular museums. While looking at the “Museum Photographs,” viewers are confronted with the act of looking itself and the social complexities of seeing and being seen.

“I am conscious that I am constructing images rather than taking snapshots,” he said of his process. “Since I do not take rapid photographs it is in this respect like a painting which takes a long time where you are very aware of what you are doing in the process.”

Struth attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he met Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, and Thomas Ruff, studying under Bernd and Hilla Becher. The Becher’s documentarian approach influenced Struth’s methodology towards photography, while his other professor, Gerhard Richter, inspired his interest in painterly images.

Internationally recognised for his wide-ranging work, including photographs of cities, landscapes, portraits, and architectural interiors. Struth has multiple books published, the most notable being 'New pictures from paradise' and 'Unconscious places.'