Thomas Ruff’s photography embraces the full material possibilities of the medium. The artist uses a range of techniques spanning from antiquated darkroom production to digital manipulation as he explores authenticity, appropriation, and the boundaries of photography as an art form; his interests align more with conceptual art than with documentary or staged photography, and his subjects span portraiture, landscapes, nudes, architecture, and abstract forms.

Ruff came to prominence as part of the Düsseldorf School, a loosely affiliated group of photographers who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher. The seriality of his subjects takes inspiration from the Bechers’ embrace of “typologies” in their own work. Ruff has exhibited in New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, and many other cities. His work belongs in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, the Guggenheim Museum, and the S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.