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After making a series of pictures of small interiors, by the mid 1980s Thomas Ruff (Zell am Harmersbach, Germany, 1958) makes intriguing full face portraits of anonymous individuals. He strives to render a portrait as objective as possible. Even more detached is the series 'Houses', which follow the 'Portraits'. He then starts to work on 'Stars', a series he composes from existing scientific material. All of Ruff's artistic reflections in first instance relate to perception. What interests him, is the mental picture which originates between reality and its photographic portrayal. In the series 'Newspaper Photographs' and 'Nights' he manipulates existing material. For the hybrid series 'Other Portraits' he uses his own work, and 'Photomontage' is a computer assisted work.
No matter how much his techniques may vary, all of Ruff's series of photographs confront the public with the fact that every belief is in truth nothing but an illusion.
artists overview