THOMAS RUFF: Sterne (Stars)

Ben Brown Fine Arts is showing seven of Thomas Ruff's large scale Sterne (Stars) photographs in the gallery space as an installation. For this exhibition the gallery has been blackened in order to give more gravitas to the entire show and more importantly to each individual work. The installed photographs range from sparsely populated night skies to almost overpowering brightly lit pictures showing other galaxies which can be mistaken for clouds in the sky.

Ruff has always had a fascination with astronomy. His attempt at photographing night sky failed due to the lack of detail captured in the pictures he had taken. Ruff's equipment could not render the detail he wanted as well as air and light pollution added to the difficulties of capturing the beautiful constellations. His solution was to take observation shots from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) based in the Andes in Chile.