Thomas Struth
Thomas was a German photographer that would take photos of people at the museum and of photos of the street in black and white. Thomas shows urban scenes of the road. As stated by (Mobilio 2018) ‘The city photos are mostly devoid of people and often shot from the middle of a long street toward a single, distant point of perspective.’
The reason for Struth’s decision to stay in a central perspective for his photographs was described by John Berger as Berger stated it, ‘causes the visible world to converge on the eye of the spectator "as the universe was once thought to be arranged for God"
The strategy that Thomas uses is 'A series of spaces, buildings or objects connected by its everyday-life qualities and/or its heroic graphics'.
Thomas has used this strategy to photograph a series of streets that are located in popular cities around the world. He wanted to show the true colours of the popular cities as many of the photographs in areas where it is low-key and there isn’t any people in site.
I used this same strategy to show a series of spaces, buildings or objects. I decided to take photographs of a series of escalators that were around the city. I also took all the images from a central perspective like Thomas while having the photograph look like there is a single distant point of perspective, as there is a distant point of perspective at the end of the escalator.
This first image is of Crosby Street, Soho, New York, 1978. In this image we can see that Thomas is central to the image and is taking a photo of the street. Thomas would take photos to show that there is a ‘distant point of perspective’, as he would want to transmit the city more to show its true colours.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The green box represents the depth of field in the image, as we can see how far away the car is to the building in the background between the two red middle lines. The buildings are also in perspective as we can see how big the buildings are when they’re closer to us as the buildings in the background are much smaller. The buildings towards the back are also out of focus while everything towards the front of the photo are in focus.
This second image is of Wilhelm-Tell-Strasse, Dusseldorf, 1979, in Germany. In this image we can see that Thomas is central to the image like the photograph before and is taking a photo of the street showing a ‘distant point of perspective’, as he would want to transmit the city more to show its true colours.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The green box represents the depth of field in the image, as we can see how far away the cars is to the building in the background between the two red middle lines. The buildings are also in perspective as we can see how big the buildings are when they’re closer to us as the buildings in the background are much smaller.
This third image is of West Broadway, New York, 1978. In this image we can see that Thomas is central to the image like the photograph before and is taking a photo of the street showing a ‘distant point of perspective’, as he would want to transmit the city more to show its true colours.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The green box represents the depth of field in the image, as we can see how far away the cars is to the buildings as they’re very large. The buildings are also in perspective as we can see how much of a difference there is between the buildings closer to us than further away. The large buildings in the background are also out of focus as everything closer to Thomas is in focus.
My photographs
Photograph 1. – Central Park Mall
This photograph is taken from inside of Central Park Mall. In the photograph there is a escalator. This is a normal escalator with lights and steps. As Thomas did in his photographs, I choose to stand in the middle and take the photograph for all of my photographs, to show a central perspective. There is also a distant point of perspective at the end of the elevator.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The escalator is also in perspective as we can see how much of a difference there is from the front of the escalator than the back of the escalator. The escalator is all in focus.
Photograph 2. – Market City
This photograph is taken in the shopping centre called Market City. In the photograph there is the one escalator. This is a normal escalator with lights and steps. There is also a distant point of perspective at the end of the elevator.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The escalator is also in perspective as we can see how much of a difference there is from the front of the escalator than the back of the escalator. The escalator is all in focus.
Photograph 3. – City Mark
This photograph is taken in the shopping centre called City Mark. In the photograph there is the one escalator. This escalator was much smaller than the other escalators and it did not have any lights but it had steps. There is also a distant point of perspective at the end of the elevator.
Photograph 4. – Techno City
This photograph is taken outside the gaming centre called Techno City. In the photograph there is the one escalator. This is a normal escalator with steps but no lights There is also a distant point of perspective at the end of the elevator.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The escalator is also in perspective as we can see how much of a difference there is from the front of the escalator than the back. The elevator is all in focus.
Photograph 5. – UTS
This photograph is taken inside the UTS building 6. In the photograph there is the one escalator. This is a normal escalator with steps and bright purple lights to light up the steps. There is also a distant point of perspective at the end of the elevator.
The red lines in the photograph show the composition in the photograph, as all the individual objects come together and form the one photo. The green outline box shows the depth of field. The escalator is also in perspective as we can see how much of a difference there is from the front of the escalator than the back. The elevator is all in focus.
Bibliography
Met Museum, Collection, Thomas Sturth viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/284775?&searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&who=Struth%2c+Thomas%24Thomas+Struth&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=7>
Met Museum, Collection, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285114>.
Mobilio, A. 2018, Thomas Struth, Bookforum New York, vol. 24, Iss.
The Guardian 2019, Thomas Sturth Photographs Whitechapel Gallery, viewed 19 July 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jul/01/thomas-struth-photographs-whitechapel-gallery>.
Thomas Struth, Photos, viewed 19 July 2019, <http://www.thomasstruth32.com/smallsize/photos/b10781.jpg>.
