Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff

Notes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ruff

·         Was born in Zell am Harmerstarch, Germany 1958 and got his first camera in 1974 after going to camera classes

·       -  He photographed half-length portraits, similar to passport images.

·       -  He used even lighting and used people ages between 25-35.

·       -  He used 9x12 cm film camera, starting with black and white but later switched to colour

·        - He allowed the models to choose the background colour, probably so it put across a bit of the sitters      personality but insisted that the model made an  expressionless face.

·        - He later experimented with large format printing in 1986 producing up to 7x5 ft. prints

·         -After doing that he found that the coloured background dominated the print so he reverted to a neutral  background so the subject matter is the focus. Even though I am not doing to be printing that big, I need to be aware of this.

I quite like his work because it seems to be quick and simple and has a creepy look to it when the pictures are grouped together like when there displayed on Google images.

I like how he allowed people to choose their own backgrounds which adds personality to a picture and I imagine that it would give the model a bit more confidence knowing that they can make their own choices to put their spin on the outcome.  I think if I was to shoot in the style of Thomas I would probably allow my subject to smile or have a laugh while I was taking pictures of them so it’s not so boring and dreary  for me and the model and more of the personality of the model will come through. 

Pictures below from: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/aipe/thomas_ruff.htm

I think I prefer the black and white work done by Thomas because the low levels of contrast created by the head on lighting looks much softer than the colour stuff which I think is better. But the colour allows you to see the colour of the clothing which can tell you a lot about the person you are photographing. One thing you notice when you compare the black and white work with the colour work is that he’s pretty much always chops the top of the head off and is zoomed in much closer when it’s the black and white stuff. I think this is better because in my opinion he’s removing  the meaningless space and retaining the important bit, the face which then more pronounced and the centre of attention, which in this case is an essential part of the picture.