Audience 11, Florence, 2004

According to Thomas Struth, “making a photograph is mostly an intellectual process of understanding people or cities and their historical or phenomenological connections. At that point the photo is almost made, and all that remains is the mechanical process. I could also write a text, but as I don’t write, I use the language of photographs. Seeing the circumstances, understanding, and interpreting them is the interesting part for me.” (“Interview between Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and Thomas Struth”, in Thomas Struth. Portraits, exhibition catalogue, New York: Marian Goodman Gallery, 1990). Considered as a whole, Struth’s works convey an image of the present, not only recording history at the moment it takes place, but also offering an interpretation of it. [...]