Room Guide

Room 10
Contemporary Street & Studio

Several works in this room use the blank setting of the studio to create a sense of psychological distance. In the early 1980s, Thomas Ruff asked friends from art school to pose in unremarkable clothes with a neutral expression and shot them in the conventional style of the ID-photo. Presented in a very standardised way, they resist any psychological interpretation. Several years later, Sarah Jones made her Actor series, in which two characters stand together against a neutral backdrop but seem wholly unaware of each other.

Other works use the street to explore themes of isolation and society’s indifference to the weak and suffering. Boris Mikhailov’s photographs present a wretched portrait of urban destitution. Following the demise of the Soviet Union, Mikhailov documented the poverty and social collapse that he saw every day in his home city of Kharkov. He paid his subjects to pose for him, often exposing their ravaged bodies with their tattoos, scars, bulging bellies and sagging breasts. Bruno Serralongue also draws attention to the most marginal in society. Over sixteen months, he photographed the repeated demonstrations of a group of immigrants calling for legal recognition in France. His documentation of the whole campaign contrasts with official press coverage, which mentioned the demonstrations only once. Valérie Jouve’s The Characters presents people in the street, but refuses to offer any insight into their personal worlds.

Suzanne Lafont 1949
Born and works France
Passer-by no. 1 1995-98
Marcheur no. 1
Serigraph
Collection of the artist
© Suzanne Lafont enlarge

Sunil Gupta 1953
Born India, works India and Britain
From Mr Malhotra’s Party
Pavitr 2007
Inkjet print
Collection of Rudolph Leuthold © Sunil Gupta
enlarge X22699

• Other works in this room
  • Mitra Tabrizian (1959 Tehran, lives in London)
    From the series Beyond the Limits, 2000
    120 x 180 cm
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
    X26567
  • Kristleifur Björnsson (1973 Reykjavik, lives in Berlin)
    From the series Mindi; my indian flower, 0803_observer3_lg, August 2005, 246 x 177 cm
    From the series My girlfriend Natalie, THE_PLAY_3_30_03_4_HI, June 2003,290 x 196 cm
    Montages of inkjet prints
    Kristleifur Björnsson/Stalke Gallery Denmark
    X23161
    X23162
  • Suzanne Lafont (1949 Nîmes, lives in Saint-Ouen, Paris)
    Marcheur no. 1 (Passers-by no. 1), 1995–98; 147.5 x 120 cm
    Serigraphie
    Collection of the artist
    X25817
  • Suzanne Lafont (1949 NÎmes, lives in Saint-Ouen, Paris)
    Balayeur (Street Sweeper), 1997; 153.9 x 122.5 cm
    Serigraphie
    Collection of the artist
    X25818
  • Bruno Serralongue(1968 Châtellerault, France, lives in Paris)
    Manifestations du Collectif des Sans Papiers de la Maison des Ensembles, Place du Châtelet, Paris (Demonstrations of the Maison des Ensembles Group of Immigrants, Place du Châtelet, Paris), 2001–3, 28 individual photographs, first part of a series of 45, each 31.5 x 39.5 cm
    Cibachrome
    Collection Frac Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France
  • Pieter Hugo(1976 Cape Town, lives in Cape Town)
    From the series The Hyena & Other Men, 2007
    Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria, 2007, 100 x 100 cm
    C-Print
    Courtesy Galerie Bertrand & Gruner and the artist
    X25243
  • Paul Graham (1956 Stafford, United Kingdom, lives in New York)
    From the series American Night
    Untitled 1999 (New York) #45, 1999, 180 x 228 cm
    Untitled 2000 (Memphis) #53, 1999, printed 2008, 189.5 x 238.5 cm,
    Digital C-Prints, Diasec
    © the artist, Courtesy of Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
    X22765
  • Sarah Jones (1959 London, lives in London)
    From the series Actor (four photographs)
    Actor, 1995, 150 x 150 cm
    C-print on Aluminium
    The MAG Collection
  • Sunil Gupta (1953 New Dehli, lives in New Delhi and London)
    From the series: Mr Malhotra’s Party
    Pavitr, 2007
    Bikram,2007
    Inkjet prints, 111.8 x 111.8 cm
    Collection of Rudolph Leuthold
  • Valérie Jouve (1964 Saint-Etienne, France, lives in Paris)
    From the series Les Personnages (The Characters)
    Sans titre, No. 3 (Untitled, No. 3),1994–5
    Sans titre, No. 4 (Untitled, No. 4),1994–5
    C-print, 103 x 133 cm
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • 1 showcase
    Boris Mikhailov (1938 Charkov, Ukraine, lives in Charkov and Berlin)
    From the project Case History, 1997–8
    30 C-Prints (Standard-Photolabprints), each 15.2 x 10.2 cm
    Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen