Thomas Struth - Museum Photographs

Thomas Struth is one of the most famous and acclaimed photographers, best-known for his family portraits and black and white photographs of New York and Dusseldorf.

In 1989 Struth began working on his series Museum Photographs. His inspiration for this project came while living in Naples and Rome, as the artist discovered a relation between art and religion and how paintings exist as agents of spirituality. By that year Struth was already showing in museums all over Europe and had to frequently travel to different cities. That gave him the opportunity to visit museums like the Louvre, spend time in them, explore and concentrate on the exhibiting works and their viewers’ reactions towards them. “The museums were almost always crowded and this led me to wonder what people were looking for in front of these historic paintings. For me the museum is a place to sharpen my tools, my perception, to delve into history. What can you valuably take from pictures from the past, which might be a catalyst for interesting or productive ideas for the future?”

Museum Photographs, with its images of people viewing works of art in museums around the world, explores photography's rivalry with painting as well as issues like how art changes by being in a museum, how it is displayed, and how we look at it. Including an outstanding essay by Belting, this slim, oversized book contains 17 large plates of the enormous photographs.