THOMAS RUFF

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04

Sterne

1989—1992
The Sterne series is the first of several works related to outer space. Ruff’s pursuit of the outside world through photography, which had begun by directing his lens at the interiors of familiar environments, continued with him turning to outer space, which had been a subject of interest since his childhood. These photographs of an immense starry sky are based on negatives taken with a high-performance astronomical telescope at an observatory that was established in South America by the ESO (European Southern Observatory). In terms of Ruff’s practice, the work is also notable as the first time he made use of existing images as a material.