New Acquisition: Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth (born 1954) is best known for his landscape and architectural photography. Before turning to photography, however, Struth studied painting in the early 1970s with Gerhard Richter at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf; he would later join Bernd Becher's class in the department of Photography, whose influence remains significant on Struth’s work. The Walther Collection recently acquired six examples from his 2004 series "Paradise," which is composed of landscape photographs in both color and black and white for which Struth traveled around the world.
In varying locales such as Bavaria, southern China, and North and South America, he photographed jungles, forests, and densely wooded areas with his typical neutral approach. His detailed images contain no animals, often little ground or sky, and relatively even atmospheric lighting. The compositions therefore highlight the patterns and structures of the different types of trees—towering straight, lush and intertwined, tropical or swampy. With their frank viewpoint and purposefully narrow framing, these natural scenes are almost dream-like, verdant worlds, creating the feel of an archetypical paradise.
– Sofia Paule
