Connecting Essay 1

Thomas Ruff




  This image is one of many pieces of work produced by Ruff. Most of his work is based around the same idea which he never sways from. He photographed portraits of people mostly all in the same way. They were never smiling so remained emotionless, they wore ordinary clothes and they were photographed against a plain background. His portrait images therefore did not display any individuality. This is because he believed that a photograph could only show the surface of the object within it. Furthermore, by photographing them this way he swapped things around and actually made portrait imagery more interesting. For example, if we were to view an image whereby a person was smiling/laughing, we would automatically think that this person may be happy or in a good mood. However, they are more than likely portraying this emotion solely because the photographer told them to. Therefore, how do we really know that the person is really feeling happy? - they could really be feeling sad but smiling because this is what they have been told to do. Ruff therefore decided to photograph people as plainly as they could be. By doing this, it makes us think more about what they may be feeling on the inside. It opens a gate to many things which they may be thinking or feeling which we cannot simply tell. The image pictured above I feel is a good example because she is dressed in plain clothing which is a soft colour which is not bright (again not expressing individuality) and she is pictured against a white background which is also a similar colour to her clothing. She also has light coloured hair and pale skin which makes the image even more plain. Ruff really wants viewers to think deeply when looking at his images such as the one pictured above.




  I chose his image as one to represent the link between my own work and Ruff's work because I feel like it is easy to see the similarities between the two images that I have shown. Here, she remains totally emotionless, her skin is also pale and she is wearing ordinary clothes (she is not wearing anything to vibrant or she is not dressed smartly) so we cannot make assumptions surrounding her mood etc. I personally feel like because the background makes her pale face stand out, that we are led to her eyes which we focus on for some time, trying to figure out what it is that she is feeling. Similar to the image above, however hard we try, we simply cannot make assumptions surrounding her thoughts and feelings because there is little or nothing to work with. This image reinforces the idea that a picture show merely the surface of an object within a image.