Thomas Ruff (b. 1958), known for his deadpan portraits and gorgeous views of the night sky and architecture, is one of Germany's leading contemporary artist/photographers. Among his recent work is an exploration of the internet, that parallel visual universe teeming with sexuality of every flavor and variety. He gathers from that virtual playground erotic and often pornographic photographs that he subsequently manipulates in his computer, making beautiful--and disturbing--artwork from visual material that, for better or worse, is probably more abundant than any other type of image in our world today. 
The pictures, which are graphic and abstract at the same time, are accompanied by an excerpt from a forthcoming novel by controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq, whose work is similarly influenced by the sex industry. Reviewing the series in the Village Voice, Jerry Saltz wrote: "Ruff may think these images are analytic or objective, but they're also sweetly, luxuriantly visual...Sex slips into something ravishingly, optically comfortable, and these everyday, off-world images morph into parapaintings from the Planet Love."

Thomas Ruff Nudes

Arts & Photography

Thomas Ruff

Frank Wynne

Individual Artists

Harry N. Abrams

Originally published in 1994, this monograph provides an introduction to Herzog &amp; de Meuron with reproductions of built works, drawings and plans, commentary on the duo from various admirers and color photographs by Thomas Ruff.

Architectures of Herzog & de Meuron: Portraits by Thomas Ruff

Architecture

Peter Blum Edition, New York

Jpegs is a stunningly beautiful book. Seeing the images in the book has made me re-appreciate the sheer beauty of this body of work.

Thomas Ruff: JPGs

Dumont Buchverlag

For the first time, Photographic Objects traces important conceptual connections between the work of Thomas Ruff and that of a younger generation of artists. Against the backdrop of ongoing debates on the "nature of photography," Marcus Kramer has developed a new approach to pinpointing what distinguishes the photographic medium from all others.
The book's detailed illustrations offer an extensive overview of the work of Thomas Ruff, Wade Guyton, Seth Price, Kelley Walker, and Spiros Hadjidjanos, while the theory postulated here forms a conceptual framework for the discussion of contemporary artistic practices.

Photographic Objects: Thomas Ruff, Wade Guyton, Seth Price, Kelley Walker, Spiros Hadjidjanos (English and German Edition)

Wade Guyton

Seth Price

Markus Kramer

Kelley Walker

Spiros Hadjidjanos

Kehrer Verlag

Thomas Ruff: The Grammar of Photography

Filippo Maggia

Nepente

Coinciding with exhibitions in Ghent and Düsseldorf, this book comprises five photo series ranging from Thomas Ruffs start in the late 1970s to recent work in 2014. As a conceptual photographer, his interest lies less in photographing reality, and instead focuses on portraying the realities of photography. Based in the spectrum between natural and virtual light, it engages a fundamental shift in the photographic medium over the last 30 years. In each series, Ruff subjects the medium to systematic analysis, the social, political and aesthetic aspects of image production. With contributions by Philippe Van Cauteren, Robert Fleck, Gregor Jansen, Martin Germann, and Valeria Liebermann.

Thomas Ruff - Lichten

Photography & Video

Roma Publications

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Books by Thomas Ruff