Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is a German photographer, who has been well known in art gallery circles since the mid-1980s, when he debuted with a series of portraits of friends and acquaintances in Düsseldorf, rendered in a sharp yet non-affecting manner that has since become widespread and even a kind of orthodoxy in art photography. A subsequent series of blank buildings proved influential: like many of his generation, Ruff has drawn heavily from Bernt and Hiller Becher. Now he has moved on from his earlier concerns to a collection of photographic series that incorporate architecture, newspaper images, astronomy and even Internet pornography. The work that he is represented by at the Citigroup Private Bank Photography Prize comes from a recent show at the Essor Gallery on London’s America Street.