Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010 [Amazon] The Monacelli Press (October 26, 2010)

Giveaway!

The fine folks at The Monacelli Press were kind enough to give me an extra copy to give to one of you lucky readers. Details on the giveaway are after the review.

About the Book

Photographer Thomas Struth is one of the most acclaimed artists to emerge from Europe in the late twentieth century. With great precision, clarity of color, and an unwavering instinct for composition, he addresses both important photographic motifs and informal, often little-known subjects. Struth characteristically treats the various aspects of his photographs in an even-handed way, a neutrality he also applies to the viewer, for he puts the viewing public on a par with his pictorial world.

This lavish volume is the most comprehensive study of Struth’s œuvre, showcasing all of the famous series and images: the streetscapes of Düsseldorf, New York City, Rome, China, and elsewhere; the family portraits; the museum photographs; the flowers, plants, and rainforests; and most recently, the studies of science and technology. Struth revisits many of his subjects, adding ever more layers of complexity and interpretation. Essays by renowned curators and critics complete this essential study of one of the world’s major artists.

About the Photographer

Thomas Struth was born in 1954 in Geldern, Germany, and now lives in Düsseldorf and Berlin. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf, where he studied with Gerhard Richter and Bernd Becher. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been collected by countless museums and other institutions.

Our Take

This is a beautiful photo book.  The book is grandiose in scale and the pictures are wonderfully reproduced.  Struth is an excellent photographer who’s style comes through regardless of the subject matter he tackles.

I especially loved his Audiences.  Struth is able to capture people, while they are looking at museum artworks, at their most vulnerable–in various states of awe, wonderment, puzzlement, and all of the other emotions that envelope a viewer while they are looking at art.

This book is for…

Lovers of art and photography of course!

Conclusion

Thomas Struth is a masterful photographer and this book really does justice to the journeyman.  It’s truly wonderful to see how he works his series and subjects that range from industrial landscapes to family portraits over the years.  You get a sense, from these photographs, that Thomas Struth is a patient photographer.  His keen observational skills have helped him put together a prolific art career as observer.

The big bonus of this book, aside of course from the beautiful photographs, are the essays at the end of the book by Armin Zweite, Anelle Kruszynski, James Lingwood, and Ruth HaCohen and Yaron Ezrahi.  You’ll look at the photographs in an entirely different, and more enlightened, manner after reading the essays.

This photography book receives a…

5 out of 5!

And now the giveaway…

Win a copy of Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010!

We’re going to do a simple comment giveaway for this one with bonus points for “tweets” and facebook fandom.  This giveaway is open to anyone.  I’ll ship anywhere ’cause why not?

Leave a comment below as your entry for the giveaway.  A simple one or two-liner about why you’d love to receive this book should suffice.  This counts for one entry.

Once you leave a comment you can get a bonus entry for each action:

1. Tweet about this book review with the hashtag #YPT.
2. Become a fan by “liking” of our facebook page.  If you’re already a fan you don’t have to un-like then re-like, you’ll get your bonus entry just by commenting.

You’ve got one week.  Contest will close on Saturday Feb 12, 2011 Midnight CST.  We’ll announce the winner using random.org on Sunday Feb 13, 2011.

Now get those entries in!