© Thomas Struth

#1: Duesselstrasse, Duesseldorf, 1979
#2: Sommersstrasse, Duesseldorf, 1980

Thanks to caille for introducing me to this wonderful photographer. It’s really a shame that I haven’t heard of him before, but I also have to say that it’s impossible to know them all, right?!

“I wanted to highlight that this work was not so much about architectural styles or urban history but about what communities created beyond individual responsibilities of architects and financiers, building laws and stuff like that. It was more about the influence of our unconsciousness on the creation of public space and that we are also exposed to it while we live in a city.” (Thomas Struth)

“That last quote reflects a certain obsession of mine — the idea of how place matters more than ever now, that it drives our impulses and our unconscious in ways we don’t understand.  I love all of his work but the early photos he took, of empty streets in different cities, are the ones I come back to again and again. His composition is so calm, his lighting so natural (to the point of being over-bright, even), that you’re allowed to relax into the vision of an empty street in a particular place. Then all the historical layers of that place, all the sorrow and fear and hope built into the architecture that surrounds us, it all just hits you.” (caille)

Find more photos here.

(thanks to / via: caille)