Family Life by Thomas Struth Photography

Thomas Struth Family Life
November 29, 2008 through February 22, 2009 now on view image bank & lees verder ...

“For me, making a photograph is mostly an intellectual process of understanding people or cities and their historical and phenomenological connections. At that point the photo is almost made, and all that remains is the mechanical process.”
Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth’s interest in family portraits was triggered by a psychoanalyst friend, who as a means of finding out more about their biographical backgrounds asked his patients to bring photographs of their family from their childhood. The position of family members to one another, the closeness or distance to the partner, to father and mother, brother or sister reveals much much more than is immediately apparent. Struth found this insight and the thought of what options photography offers in this context so fascinating that he began a series of family portraits in 1985, which today alongside other topics, forms a central component of his oeuvre.

Initially, the families portrayed came from Struth’s close family circle or are friends and acquaintances; he later extended the scope to countries outside Europe and other social classes. His only condition is that there is a connection between him and the families in question – Struth never photographs people to whom no such connection exists. Generally speaking the artist first organizes several sessions with the portrait subjects to get a sense of the families, the individual members and their relationship to one another. The chosen backdrop is always in the family’s domestic environment, and Thomas Struth lets his models decide on the setting so as to produce as authentic a portrayal as possible. The fascinating thing about Struth’s family portraits is their undeniably representative character. Even in what are seemingly the most casual groupings the need to present yourself as an individual within a hierarchical order remains – and the strength of this need varies from culture to culture.

In terms of art history Thomas Struth’s family portraits stand in the tradition of his great models from painting, from Goya to Velazquez. Read more ... & read an interview with Thomas Struth ...

See more about the family life Sally Mann ... & Kars van Bennekom ...

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, Munich

Thomas Struth
Familienleben
With an essay by Eric Konigsberg
and texts by Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Thomas Struth
92 pages, 28 duotone and color plates