Thomas Ruff
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer well known for his varied portraits. He began to get into portraiture when he became the art director for a post punk band in Dusseldorf in return for them being his subjects of his early portraits.
His aim, much like my own, was to show a neutrality across all of the portraits (later becoming a series titled 'Portraits', which he worked on from 1986–91 and resumed in 1998) and emphasise the face. Each subject is photographed against a plain background with plain clothes in order to draw attention to the faces.
On the Tate website for his series, it says;
French theorist Roland Barthes, in his book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1982), suggests that it is possible for a photograph to convey deep emotion, and that there is a moment when the subject of a photograph makes a direct link with the emotions of the viewer through the surface of the image. Ruff, however, takes a much more pragmatic view, convinced that a photograph is only able to express the superficial – literally showing us the surface of its subject (and in itself the photograph is nothing more than a surface).
In my own work, I feel I am mixing the two points of view together; I intend not for the viewer to know everything about the sitter, however I do want them to be aware of themselves looking for clues within the image as to who they are, meaning I use backgrounds with items in them and clothes that the sitter has chosen to wear that day.
Ruff's images are taken in a very passport like way, much like my own. Passports are used to judge solely on appearance, and so by using this style the images produces in Portraits are also solely about the way the sitter appears. They're very standardised and uniform; on the Tate website it says;
Each was made using a standardised technique: the sitters, who were all friends and colleagues of Ruff, were positioned before a large format camera that was mounted on a tripod and covered in a black cloth. Ruff composed each scene using the inverted image that appeared on the camera’s focusing screen, after which he inserted a film holder containing the photographic plate, closed the camera, set the shutter, re-covered the camera with the black cloth and took the photograph.
I too, in my images, use a standardised way of taking my photographs; the same settings and distance to create a uniformity.
Sources:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruff-portrait-1986-stoya-p78091
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-ruff-2602
His aim, much like my own, was to show a neutrality across all of the portraits (later becoming a series titled 'Portraits', which he worked on from 1986–91 and resumed in 1998) and emphasise the face. Each subject is photographed against a plain background with plain clothes in order to draw attention to the faces.
On the Tate website for his series, it says;
French theorist Roland Barthes, in his book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1982), suggests that it is possible for a photograph to convey deep emotion, and that there is a moment when the subject of a photograph makes a direct link with the emotions of the viewer through the surface of the image. Ruff, however, takes a much more pragmatic view, convinced that a photograph is only able to express the superficial – literally showing us the surface of its subject (and in itself the photograph is nothing more than a surface).
In my own work, I feel I am mixing the two points of view together; I intend not for the viewer to know everything about the sitter, however I do want them to be aware of themselves looking for clues within the image as to who they are, meaning I use backgrounds with items in them and clothes that the sitter has chosen to wear that day.
Ruff's images are taken in a very passport like way, much like my own. Passports are used to judge solely on appearance, and so by using this style the images produces in Portraits are also solely about the way the sitter appears. They're very standardised and uniform; on the Tate website it says;
Each was made using a standardised technique: the sitters, who were all friends and colleagues of Ruff, were positioned before a large format camera that was mounted on a tripod and covered in a black cloth. Ruff composed each scene using the inverted image that appeared on the camera’s focusing screen, after which he inserted a film holder containing the photographic plate, closed the camera, set the shutter, re-covered the camera with the black cloth and took the photograph.
I too, in my images, use a standardised way of taking my photographs; the same settings and distance to create a uniformity.
This image is titled Portrait 1986 (Stoya). The blank facial expressions of this man is intended to tells the viewer little about himself, yet to me his facial expressions still have a slightly quizzical and slightly judgemental look them. His hair is smartly styled, and he wears a clean mustard yellow tshirt with monochrome braces; he appears rather classy in my eyes. This is exactly what I expect Ruff knew would happen though; people trying to understand more about his subjects by any little details that they can see. In reality, Ruff may have dressed his subjects up or asked them to come in dressed in a certain style which doesn't reflect the sitter's true identity. In this case, Ruff could be creating an entire new entity using the sitter as a base. It goes to show how little we do know from an image, which is what Ruff emphasises through his use of blank facial expressions and backgrounds.
Ruff's idea and meaning behind Portraits is fairly simple, and makes me think that I should also simplify my idea. Perhaps scrapping the names of jobs being the titles of each image, or rethinking what my idea is truly about.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruff-portrait-1986-stoya-p78091
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-ruff-2602
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