Struth, Thomas

German, b. 1954

BiographyThomas Struth’s upbringing in post-World War II Germany led him toward art as a method of escape and exploration. He trained at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1973-80, first as a painter under the mentorship of Gerhard Richter. His earliest photographs were taken as references for paintings, but he found that his straightforward, central perspective was better suited for photography. For the rest of his education, he was guided by Bernd and Hilla Becher and their documentarian, analytical methodology.

He began making large-scale photographs in 1976 that examine the rhythm of ordinary ritual in depictions of cities, families, cultural institutions, and interior spaces. With a focus on the idiosyncratic subtleties of gesture, symmetry, and geometry, Struth works to “reveal our time through the environments we have constructed, objects we venerate, and the ways we interact with one another,” he told the National Gallery of Art in 2021.

42 West Erie Street (1990), in the Museum of Contemporary Photography collection, is from his ongoing series of city photographs titled Unconscious Places that he began in the late 1970s. Upon arriving to a city, Struth seeks out a single location he feels essentializes the city’s landscape. He photographs the place in rare moments of motionless silence from the perspective of an anonymous first impression before establishing any personal narrative of the city. This imposed distance allows Struth to explore the nature of perception outside of daily routine.

Odenwald (2006), another photograph in the MoCP permanent collection, depicts the titular German mountain range in a gray haze. It was one of ten photographs featured in the Elton John Aids Photography Portfolio I, which collected works from some of the most influential contemporary photographers to raise money for AIDS research, treatment, and education.

Struth has taught photography at Karlsruhe University of Art and Design and Oxford University. He participated in the 44th Venice Biennale (1990) and Documenta IX (1992). He has had solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museo del Prado, Madrid; and others. Struth’s photographs are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Gallery, London; and Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf.