Struth studied at the Düsseldorf Academy, where
he was taught by Gerhard Richter and Bernd
Becher. During the 1970s, he began to take photographs that
explore the character of urban spaces, and what it can reveal about
the history and identity of communities. Beginning with the streets
of Düsseldorf, he gradually expanded his project to include
other cities in Western Europe, the United States, and Asia.
In these photographs, buildings and cars become as
evocative as human faces. Accustomed to hurrying through the city
with an almost unseeing eye, we are encouraged, in the artist’s
words ‘to give pause, to move to investigative viewing’.
Struth also makes portraits of friends and acquaintances, usually
in intimate gatherings, as if contrasting the public environment
of architecture with the private space of the family. These photographs
are explorations of social dynamics, showing how people within a
tightly-knit group arrange themselves in front of the camera.
