Thomas Ruff

born 1958

Thomas Ruff, ‘Portrait 1986 (Stoya)’ 1986
Portrait 1986 (Stoya) 1986
© DACS, 2019
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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

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Biography

Thomas Ruff (born 10 February 1958) is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as “a master of edited and reimagined images”.

Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf's Hansaallee, with other German photographers Laurenz Berges, Andreas Gursky and Axel Hütte. The studio, a former municipal electricity station, includes a basement gallery.

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Dusseldorf School of Photography

Artworks

Thomas Ruff, ‘Portrait 1986 (Stoya)’ 1986

Thomas Ruff Portrait 1986 (Stoya)

1986
P78091
Thomas Ruff, ‘Goetz Collection’ 1994

Thomas Ruff Goetz Collection

1994
P77935

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Thomas Ruff Tate01

2000
View by appointment P11681

Sorry, no image available

Thomas Ruff Portrait 1988 (C. Pilar)

1988
P78090

Sorry, no image available

Thomas Ruff Night 15 III

1994
P11521

Features
Essay

Surface tension

Viviane Rehberg

Thomas Ruff insists that his photographs capture only 'the surface of things'. But is there more than meets the eye?

Thomas Struth, ‘Shinju-ku (Skyscrapers), Tokyo 1986’ 1986
Art Term

Dusseldorf School of Photography

The Dusseldorf School of Photography refers to a group of photographers who studied at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in the mid ...

Cecil Beaton Miss Nancy Beaton as a Shooting Star 1928
Tate Etc

Magical, powerful, simple, shocking: Four photographers on Street & Studio

Juergen Teller , Sarah Jones , David Goldblatt and Chris Killip

To coincide with Tate Modern's survey exhibition Juergen Teller enjoys the timeless charm of a Cecil Beaton portrait, David ...

Philip-Lorca diCorcia Head number six 2001
Tate Etc

'For want of a new territory to conquer, the fictional energies of art have penetrated into the factual and material basis of photography'

Max Kozloff

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography
William Eggleston Morton, Mississippi 1969-70 dye transfer print 53 x 66.5 cm
Read

Cruel and tender

Carter Ratcliff

What is the place of documentary photography in art? This is the central question raised by Tate's first major ...

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