Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth was born on October 11, 1954, in Geldern, Germany. He was mentored by the painter Gerhard Richter and the photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. 

He is part of the generation of artists from the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts—where he studied from 1973 to 1980 —who distinguished themselves in the 1980s through their resolutely constructed documentary approach, designed to reveal the complexity of the ordinary and challenge our perception of everyday life.

Thomas Struth explores our relationship with urban space, nature, technology, and even works of art on display in museums. Following his collaboration with psychoanalyst Ingo Hartmann, who uses his patients’ family photographs in his therapeutic work, Family Portraits marks his debut in the portrait genre, which allows him to approach human beings as “social animals.” His series Family Portraits , launched in 1986, reinvents this traditional visual style and invites us to take a fresh look at this predetermined microcosm.

He currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.