Thomas Ruff: Metaphotography

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Edited by Alexandre Quoi 
 
For over forty years, Thomas Ruff has been questioning the medium of photography. To coincide with an exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Saint-Étienne, France, an artist's book was published. Its design employs striking typefaces that appear both contemporary and reminiscent of the early twentieth century, thus indicating Ruff's engagement with image genres and technical processes from different eras. The publication is divided into two parts: a text section explaining the background of individual series, and a leporello (accordion-fold book) that displays one image from each series. The reverse sides of each leporello feature images relating to the so-called "sources"—that is, images of the sources or the creative process behind his series. The leporello format revives a traditional form of image presentation that, for economic reasons, is rarely used on this scale today.