Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth was born in 1954 in Geldern, near the border between Germany and Holland. Between 1973 and 1980 he attended the art academy in Düsseldorf, studying first painting under Gerhard Richter and finally photography under Bernd and Hilla Becher. In 1978 Struth spent some time in New York on a scholarship, and while there exhibited his work for the first time at P.S.1, now known as MoMa PS1. His early photographs of New York are sober cityscapes, but in the mid-1980s he turned more and more towards portraits, both pictures of families and single subjects. In his well-known series of museum photographs he captured visitors viewing works of art. In 1986 Struth set out on a tour of Japan, China and Australia, and in the following year he was honoured with the ars viva prize in Berlin. From 1993 to 1996 he taught at Karlsruhe’s school of design, the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung. Since the late 1980s his photographs have been exhibited internationally. In 1990 he showed them at the 44th Venice Biennale, and in 1992 he participated in documenta 9. He has had major solo shows in New York, London and Seoul. Struth lives and works in Düsseldorf and Berlin.