Thomas Ruff

The photographer Thomas Ruff is a prominent representative of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. He studied in the Becher class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1977 to 1985 and was himself a professor there from 1999 to 2006. Until the early 1990s, he used self-photographed images, which he took using a wide variety of photographic techniques and processed for his conceptual series, including, for example, the " Interieurs", "Porträts" and " Häuser". Later, he uses found images from newspapers, the internet, image databases or scientific publications, which he manipulates digitally and presents as large-format photo series. In the two series "Fotogramme" and "Negative", he addresses traditional themes of photography, reinterprets them with the digital possibilities of contemporary photography and reflects on the concept of the "original" of this reproducible medium. Among many other exhibition participations, he took part in the documenta in Kassel in 1992 and in the Venice Biennale in 1995.