Ruff, Thomas (b. 1958), German photographer. A student of Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Ruff applied the analysis of form and type at first to large colour portraits of his classmates. Working in series, he has also explored stars, buildings, interiors, newspaper photographs, and Internet pornography. His repetitious use of flat lighting and a uniform viewpoint mimics surveillance photography, from the historic images of Duchenne and Bertillon to modern crime-scene photographs. Each series, especially those embodying digital manipulation, is a visual meditation on photographic authenticity.

— Kelley E. Wilder

Bibliography

• Winzen, M. (ed.), Thomas Ruff, Photographien 1979-heute (2001)

The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.