Thomas Ruff: ma.r.s.

The works in this series are based on high-resolution photographs of Mars taken by NASA spacecraft as part of a search for clues about how long water existed on the planet. Each shows an extreme close-up of the planet’s rugged surface, until recently unseen. Ruff was excited to discover that NASA employed stereoscopic photographs using a technique developed in the nineteenth century to add an illusion of depth to flat images. He downloaded a selection of these gray-scale images from NASA’s website and used digital manipulation to alter the perspective and add color. Combining analog and digital imaging techniques, his works offer dramatic three-dimensional impressions of craters, ridges, and valleys, which appear at once surreal and tactile. As such, Ruff’s compositions transform the originals into visual statements that both capture the detailed topography of the planetary surface while distancing themselves from representational imagery, evocative instead of abstract and minimalist compositions.