Whether in Du ̈sseldorf, Munich, or New York,
Struth began all of the street pictures in the same
manner, placing the camera in the middle of the
street, roughly at eye level, and selecting the hours
of the early morning when he could pretty much
depend on the deserted look that he needed to focus
attention on the layered architectural personality of
the urban vista. InThe Village Voice, speaking of one
of the black-and-white SoHo photos, Peter Schjedahl
said, ‘‘I recall the sullen charm of the picture’s cast-
iron buildings, whose familiar architectural prose-
poetry seemed more pungent for the fact of their
marginality, like side walls of a stage, to a scene that
centered essentially on nothing’’ (Schjedahl 1993).
From New York, Struth went on to record the
more-or-less anonymous streets and squares of
Paris, Rome, Edinburgh, Tokyo, and beyond, allow-
ing the cities to reveal themselves in their peculiarly
majestic ordinariness. One of the most satisfying
retrospective views of the urban landscape images
is preserved in the 1987 book/exhibition catalogue
Unbewusste Orte/Unconscious Places. The photo-
graphs presented, ranging from 1978–1987, are at
once Germanically stolid, yet infused with a capti-
vating, almost infinite detail that resonates with only
the most patient viewer.
Struth’s explorations are open ended, and, while
pursuing the street pictures, in 1985 he also began a
series of portraits—family portraits. His interest had
been piqued several years earlier during an investi-
gative collaboration with psychoanalyst Ingo Hart-
man, during which time they collected images
documenting family life, and once again when he
wished to make remembrance photos of two families
he had lived with briefly on trips to Scotland and
Japan. He has said that, in general, he sees the family
portraits as collaborations—elaborately discussed,
planned, scripted, and prepared. The series grew
slowly; between 1985 and the mid-1990s it had
grown to only 18 images. Because the subjects face
the lens rather than the photographer (who stands
beside the large-format camera); because the indivi-
duals are very conscious of their placement within
the group or the planned scenario; and because of
the uncomfortably long exposure, the participants
seem to mutate from the act of posing to simply
being in the structure—being present. Such images
asThe Ghez Family, Chicago 1990make it clear that
these portraits, like the architectural photographs,
are about structure—that is, the principles of orga-
nization within a complete whole. Struth remains
concerned with probing and analyzing and, in this
instance, developing an understanding of people and
their history. The works reflect the nature of the
relationships within them, yet they have a powerful
presence in the viewer’s space by virtue of the
intense, audience-directed gazes and the grand
scale. Soon, single portraits followed, a number of
which were exhibited and published in Thomas
Struth: Strangers and Friends, 1994.
Beginning in 1989, Struth extended his dialogue
with people into specific architectural settings, pro-
ducing what would become his most famous series:
the Museum Photographs. Returning to his interest
in architecture while continuing to illuminate social
relationships, Struth began depicting public scenes in
the world’s greatest museums on a scale that stretched
the boundaries of the medium. The images—some
more than 6 feet by 8 feet—allow the viewer to phy-
sically feel the sense of wandering among the gallery-
goers, while also confronting the grand, historic
paintings in an appropriate scale. At the same
time, the photographer’s conception of the entire
scene is shared in the blurred passers-by (a result
of the long exposure) emphasizing the comings and
goings of Struth’s reality, as always depicted in
exquisite exactitude. Speaking of the Museum
Photographs in The Museum as Muse: Artists
Reflect(New York: The Museum of Modern Art,
1999), exemplified by Galleria dell’Accademia I
Venice 1992, Struth explained, ‘‘What I want to
achieve with this series...is to make a statement
about the original process of representing people
leading to my act of making a new picture....’’
In the late 1990s, Struth added nature pictures to
the repertoire, returning to the unpopulated environ-
ment with dense foliage-filled landscapes that con-
tinue to take the viewer into spaces which he defines.
All of the works are surveyed in a major retrospec-
tive of 2002–2003 seen at the Dallas Museum of Art;
the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
ConstanceW. Glenn
Seealso:Architectural Photography; Becher, Bernd
and Hilla; Blossfeldt, Karl; Gursky, Andreas; His-
tory of Photography: the 1980s; Hu ̈tte, Axel; Keet-
man, Peter; Photography in Germany and Austria;
Portraiture; Renger-Patzsch, Albert; Ruff, Thomas;
Sander, AugustBiography
Born in Geldern, Niederrhein, Germany, 1954. Studied at
the Kunstakademie Du ̈sseldorf (Academy of Fine Arts)
1973–1980, and received a stipend for travel to New
York in 1978. Alternative civil service in a community
center 1980–1982. Works of the 1970s include street
photographs made in Japan, Europe, and America. Col-
laborated with psychoanalyst Ingo Hartman, studyingSTRUTH, THOMAS