Colecciones de arte

Haus Nr. 11 II, 1989

DESCRIPTION

Continuing with the idea of photography as portrait of the superficial, and taking advantage of his experience with the portrait series, Ruff simultaneously began -in 1987- to photograph buildings, thus revisiting the scenes he had already contemplated in his first project Interiors (1979-1983).

In a homage to his mentor Bernd Becher, the buildings portrayed are those that caught his eye during his daily trip to and from his studio, in the vicinity of Düsseldorf, between 1950 and 1970. The photographs were made early in the morning from January to March, which resulted in that neutral grey background so frequent in Northern Europe, and which enveloped all the images with sober uniformity.

These buildings are extremely functional, even banal; facades that do not allow any further perception, distant as in postcards, where specific indications of place and time are eliminated. Ruff therefore conveyed an objective visual experience which is not at all disturbing, yet depicts a most sobering reality. This was the first series in which he used digital imaging to alter some photographs, to eliminate signs and trees, because, as he put it "reality did not fulfil my wishes". C. D.