Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Keri Woodard - Weekly Artist Post

THOMAS STRUTH



Thomas Struth is a contemporary German photography known mainly for his images of architecture, urban scenes, jungles, and portraits. Since this photographer was born in the 1950's most of his pictures are black and white, but in later years he has moved to digital and also exploring color. The first image displays an example of what a lot of his works looked like; symmetrical and from a centralized point of view. Unlike a lot of photographers, Struth enjoyed the grey tones that evolved when avoiding shadow or intense light to give a sense of a neutral image. 

This photographer looks to explore the stillness left behind after crowds are dispersed and the lights are down. Many ideas fascinated Struth, but most importantly the "ambiguity that lies between what's real and what's imagined, as well as the evolutions of our notions of fantasy". In recent years his interests have turned to a scientific perspective involving images of medical labs, techno-scientific spaces reserved for enterprise and invention. These images have no people in them and displays mazes of pipes and metal structures. 

Unlike many photographers, Struth wasn't really concerned about contrast. The quality of the images without the use of intense blacks and whites makes an amazing picture. Usually, I am drawn to photographers using black and white because I enjoy contrast and underexposed pictures. Although, Thomas Struth manages to catch the viewers attention by using neutral tones and grays and shooting images in the middle of the day where there is no interesting light. When he does use other methods the photographs still look incredible (top picture: using the intense black and white, middle picture: using intense color and shooting at night).

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