Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is a German photographer associated with the Dusseldorf School of Photography. Over the course of his three-decade career, it is his medium that has served as his subject matter. Constantly circling a curiosity about 'visual systems', Ruff's work is rooted in a belief that photography need not portray the truth of an image; rather, it is the image itself that needs to be authentic.Working in self-contained series, Ruff gained renown with 'Porträts' (Portraits) (1981—1985/ 1986—1991), expressionless images of his friends and colleagues that he later enlarged to a towering scale. 

Ruff's 'Sterne' (Star) series marked a significant turning point in his career, not only because it indulged his lifelong affinity for astronomy but moved away from the camera viewfinder to the archive, relinquishing his ability to 'pull the trigger.' Sourcing over 1000 photographs from the European Southern Observatory in Chile in the form of 29cm negatives, he enlarged, cropped, and reorientated the swirling compositions, tying them together with the astrological coordinates in the title, as in Sterne (Stars) 20h 00m/-35° (1992/2016).