Thomas Struth German, 1954- Thomas Struth (born in Geldern) relies on the optical precision and detailed resolution of photography to explore social and psychological aspects of the contemporary urban metropolis. A student of Gerhard Richter and Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Struth inherited from his instructors a similar conceptual approach. His work of the early 1980s, austere black-and-white images of buildings and city streets devoid of human activity, suggests urban malaise and, at the same time, a sense of soulful detachment from the environment. For his later works, Struth moved into color and greatly increased the scale of his photographs, invoking a more participatory relationship between image and viewer. His scenes expanded to include people interacting in public spaces such as museums and churches, or posed in family portraits. Struth has exhibited internationally, with one-person shows at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art (1987), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1992), the Saint Louis Art Museum (1993), the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1994), and the Kunstmuseum, Bonn (1995). His monographs include Thomas Struth, Unbewusste Orte/Unconscious Places (1987), Thomas Struth (1989), Thomas Struth Photographs (1990), Thomas Struth (1991), Thomas Struth: Portraits (1992), Thomas Struth, Museum Photographs (1993), and Thomas Struth: Strangers and Friends: Photographs 1986-1992 (1994). He lives in Düsseldorf. A.W.