An
analytical discussion of how Thomas Ruff’s composite ‘Blue
Eyes’ has created a new look into portraiture and how
his approach and technicality has affected how a viewer
aligns with his subjects.
Thomas Ruff’s combined
photos tilted ‘Blue Eyes’ from the series ‘Portraits’ demonstrates how
repetitive regimes and the lack of narrative image can impact on the viewer’s
connection with the subject. Within this essay the passport like image will be
placed within the context of the time and place it was produced as well as the
discussion as to how the technicality and concept creates a lack of emotional
effect and an indicates a mass loss of identity in today’s society. There will
also be discussion of how Thomas Ruff’s manipulation of portraiture and the
influences that have aided in the creation of the image ‘Blue Eyes’. Including reference
to August Sander and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
German photographer
Thomas Ruff (b.1958) studied
at Düsseldorf
Art Academy from 1977 – 1985 under Bernd and Hilla Becher. Ruff himself and
fellow students including Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth ‘are often dubbed the ‘‘Düsseldorf School,’’ characterized by their shared,
Becher-inspired analytic approach to their subject matter.’’This being the use of strict rules, repetitiveness and a typological technique kept
when shooting series so every image is the same as the previous. Ruff’s long
career has been defined by his repetitive technique and the way his approach
creates significant series that explores the medium of photography. This can be seen in the composite ‘Blue
Eyes’ as it demonstrates all of these aspects in one image. Blue Eyes is a composite
produced in 1991 as an extension of Ruff’s series Portraits that spanned 1981 –
1991. There are many points worth discussing when it comes to this composite as
it has been looked at from numerous angles.
Whilst the discussion so far has been predominantly an introduction to
Ruff and his approach, it is note worthy to mention how this piece can be seen
as a somewhat scientific experiment. Ruff produces typological images of the
same subject matter and places them next to each other in a comparable way;
this is most evident in Blue Eyes due to the four sitters being put together.
Although Ruff has stated that his work is not of an experimental nature and any
outcome people perceive from his work is just ‘Collateral’.
Ruff is continuously changing the medium in which he creates his pieces; from
using found images in his series Jpegs to extending his older project,
Portraits. From Portraits derived two further projects, the single composite
Blue Eyes that will be discussed in depth and Andere Portraits, which
translates as ‘other portraits’. These two projects go hand in hand as they are
using previous portrait photos and manipulating them. At first gaze it is the
assumption that Ruff is using the sitters as variables within this ‘experiment’
of different people and that the blue eyes are what connects these ‘strangers’
together. However the major point is that Ruff has altered the iris on each of
subjects to bright blue. Since then, Ruff has not spoken about why he changed there
eyes, however one can assume from an interview about ‘Andere Portraits’ is that
he wanted to create a new human, he wanted to manipulate his viewers into
thinking that these sitters were placed in the composite and it was tilted
‘Blue Eyes’ because they genuinely have blue eyes, however they don’t. Furthermore
it has been stated that in fact he altered more than four portraits ‘he replaced the dark eyes in twelve of his
earlier portraits with blue ones, subverting the authenticity of his own
photographs.’ It is here again that we can assume that it is a type of a scientific
experiment because it is possible he only released the portraits he liked the
outcome of. The
blue eye manipulation some how masks these sitters, and puts them into a type
of inexistence. Although it’s not
only the eyes that are seen within this composite, we do see four humans, who
have eyes, ears and a nose like the rest of us. But this leads us to the next
point of discussion; who are the people within these portraits?
First of all it shows 4 Portraits; two of young woman and two of young
men aged 24 – 34. Each gender is placed next to the opposite, which creates a
symmetrical satisfaction for the viewer. The sitters within the photo are
positioned in the same way; each one in front of a white background, there head
and shoulders facing towards the camera with eyes looking straight into the
lens, engaging the viewer. There is a type of formality that comes with these
Portraits, the sitters do not look at ease, and they’re positioned up straight,
leading to a lack of character as they are all sitting the same way, bringing a
form of unity. These images are
very much surface based and do not show any depth. We are looking at these
people as outsiders peering in, seeking a way in. If we begin with the two male
portraits, we can see that these two men differentiate from each other. There skin
tones are extremely different however the main point that distinguishes these
two men apart is how they choose to represent themselves. The top left man chooses
to have his hair short and wear a smart shirt, where as the man in the bottom
right portrait has a more relaxed style, his hair is slightly longer and he has
chosen to wear a jumper that’s slightly creased. At first glance these two men
are completely different, the only thing they have in common is that they’re
both placed next to each other and could roughly be the same age. However when
we look at the two women, they look reasonably similar, although they do have
completely different hair colours and skin tones it seems to be that they
represent the fashion of the time they were shot, they are wearing similar
types of loose fitting shirts that are of neutral tones and their hair is of
the same length. Although we can
see who these people are and there dress sense it tells us nothing of their
personality but creates a type of non-existent relation, that all these people
are still physical beings. As stated by Giorgio Verzotti in the book, Thomas
Ruff written by himself and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, ‘‘More Precisely the intention of these portraits is not to stress
distinctive individual features, but conversely to bring out the anonymous,
generic, qualities that each one embodies’’
Portraiture is defined as displaying the expression, personality and
mood of a subject. ‘Blue Eyes’ illustrates none of these characteristics, so why
are they still classed as portraits? We do not receive any information about
the sitters, which is odd due to portraits meaning to be a representation of
ones self and therefore we as the viewer are unable to receive closure from
Blue Eyes.
The composite is a large format print – in fact one of his last portrait
prints, due to the paper being discontinued in 1991 and it has given us no
indication as to who these people are, no form of recognition we can find
ourselves aligning with. These portraits were created to be placed on a wall, which
leads to another point on Ruff’s anti-recognition. By looking at the image, we
are typically standing in front of it. Their eyes align with ours. However in
these images we are not able to recognise ourselves with them, disabling any
sympathetic or emotional meaning to come from it. Ruff states ‘‘I also
wanted to indicate that the viewer is not face-to-face with a real person.
Quite often people at exhibitions, ‘Oh that’s Heinz, that’s Peter, that’s
Petra’, because they’re looking through the photograph, confusing he medium
with reality. By blowing the portraits up to a colossal scale, I forced the
viewer to realise that he is not standing in front of Heinz, but in front of a
photograph of Heinz’’
Furthermore the fact that these experiments were created after the
project of ‘Portraits’ was completed allows us to think that Ruff still wasn’t
satisfied with the outcome he had been receiving. Ruff specifically asked his
sitters not to show emotion. As Tobias Ostrander, author of the book Thomas Ruff: Identificaciones stated in ‘‘the faces of each participant are devoid
of any significant expression’’ and
‘‘these portraits gain a uniformity, which diminishes the individual
characteristics of each person portrayed’’. Blue Eyes is a flat image, its all
about the surface, what you see is what you get, there is no depth or hidden
meaning or underlining narrative. But naturally as a human we seek for meaning,
so when looking at these images we still wonder what are these people saying
through their eyes, their body language, their wardrobe, what are they
thinking?
But at the same time, ‘Blue Eyes’ is still relevant within the
portraiture aspect because these sitters are still representing who they are,
Ruff knew his sitters; they were either friends or acquaintances that he asked
to photograph because he wanted to use people who represented the time they
were made. ‘‘I made portraits of my
friends. I was interested in making series of contemporary portraits of young
people what would reflect present times in the western, industrialized world of
the twentieth century’’6 and ‘‘Resist
the photographic gaze of a surveillance society by being almost expressionless’’7. They were also wearing there own clothes, this leads
to the point of self representation which is part of portraiture, they were
representing who they are by how they dress themselves, despite the fact that they
do not have any facial expressions. This has been a main vocal point when
discussing Ruff’s portraits, ‘They have
no memory. They are mute and drained of affect. His works speak of a contemporary
subjectivity defined by amnesia – unable to process and connect the various
mnemonically embedded images in order to create a deep and layered holistic
sense of knowledge’’Ruff has stated that he simply
aimed to capture the look of ‘his generation’, Socially if Ruff is representing
his generation, what is his generation indicating? Again the way he has
positioned his sitters, indicates how his generation were beginning to loose their
identity. ‘‘Most of the photos we come
across today aren’t really authentic anymore, they have the authenticity of a
manipulated and prearranged reality'’. It is here that we begin to understand why Ruff has manipulated his photos, we
still don’t understand why he manipulated the eyes, but we can begin to get a
sense of the form of manipulation in its greatest form, to perfect the human
body.
Another reason he may have used sitters to reflect his age and his
generation is in a comparable way to previous generations, which again could
lead to the idea of an experiment Ruff is conducting. However in some ways it
can be that he is following on from fellow German photographer and a primary
influence August Sander’s work and just adapting to the reality that has time
as past so has peoples status’ within society. Sander began shooting portraits
of people from 1910 and is renowned for them. His portraits depicted a wide
range of different people, including farmers, students, politicians etc, in
there own environment with there ‘own’ people, indicating a social status that
Germany had. It is Sanders work that is the exact definition of portraiture and
dates back as far back to B.C. Its historical purpose usually depicted the rich
and powerful. Ruff has even stated
himself that he aimed to create these portraits in reflection of 1920’s
portrait photography. ‘‘Sharp, objective
photographs in the tradition of the objective photography of the 1920’s’’6. However now day’s portraits are much easier to create
due to the development of technology. This leads to another point of the
composite Blue Eyes in which can be applied, the development of technology.
First of all it aided Ruff in being able to choose a colour of the eyes of his
sitters, but further more could insinuate a more prominent point in the time,
in which the perfect human was beginning to be more dominant within society.
These were large format prints, which allowed us to see every open paw,
every stray strand of hair. This could somewhat highlight a divide in the way
we see the image, although we are not receiving a personal connection due to
the lack of expression and narrative, we feel the alignment through the
features they have, we know what its like to have a spot, or in need of a hair
appointment etc. He is representing real people of ‘his generation’. But
altering them so they are not real people at all, they are a fabrication, a
creation of his own. Much like today where the majority of advertisements have
been altered to represent absolute perfection.
It’s at this point we are able to discuss Ruffs technical manipulation
towards this image, although he has altered the subjects within the portraits,
the way he has displayed the image aids in the respect of the mass uniformity
he could be trying to uncover. The portraits are set out differently from his
previous series. Instead of one on there own placed next to each other on a
wall on large prints. These four images have been put together to create a type
of ‘super’ image. This image has been produced as four portrait composite,
however it reflects the style of a photo booth in which you would get
identification photos done. This supports the theory of the mass identity that
could be received from this image, as when we have these photos taken, we get
four copies of the same image. Therefore this format is replicating that but
instead of four copies of one image, we receive four different images of four
different people, but still using the same format, meaning that all these
people could possibly be representing the same person. Leading to the lack of
individuality, but also the idea that the more and more the western world
advances, the more identification and proof we need to in fact exist. It is
here again that we see that Ruff has steered away from the archaic forms of
portraiture in these portraits, due to the surroundings not representing whom
these people are, it again adds to the absence of personality. All we have to
go on is by the way they are staring not at us but straight through us. And
even when we as the viewer have moved away from the image, the portraits will
still be looking straightforward into nothing. That is what leads to the lack
of emotional response, because although portraits have often been thought of
capturing the soul, or pieces of the soul. This composite shows no soul just
surface.
So far the discussion has been on Ruff’s approach towards capturing the
images. However the question to ask now is why? Why did Ruff change all his
sitters irises to blue, what was he trying to convey? First of all we don’t
know why he chose these particular sitters out of all the portraits he had,
second of all we don’t know why he changed the colour of their eyes to blue.
One can assume that he chose blue because people perceive blue eyes as beauty
and perfection and could even derive from Nazi Germany Aryan race. In the 1930s
the Nazi’s actually banned Sander’s portraits as they did not reflect the ideal
Aryan type6, could this be a reason for Ruff manufacturing
the perfect human. However another worthy point of discussion is that years
after this composite was exhibited the advance in technology allows us to seek
new meanings from it. For example, in 2008, 17 years after this composite was
produced it was proven that every person with blue eyes comes from the same
ancestor. So now could this photo have a new meaning, 17 years later? That
these people could have possibly been related, if we hadn’t known that their
blue eyes were fabricated. Another
point to consider is why did he distribute these four portraits and exhibit
them, as a size of his previous individual portraits would be. They’re a few possibilities;
by having the portraits millimetres between each other allows the viewers eyes
to capture the difference and similarities between the sitters immediately. But
at the same time it’s almost as if Ruff is throwing it in our face that we are
meant to see a connection between these sitters, however again this leads to
the idea of a mass identity and unity because we are looking for a connection
and for all we know they could be strangers to each other.
Again like the 2008 investigation, the photos represent there
time, which means viewers coming to look at the portraits now perhaps would not
understand it the way viewers perhaps would have in 1991. For me now looking at
this image, I interpret it as people from the 90’s, but why do I think
that? Not because I know the date
but because of how they are represented, Ruff has succeeded in representing his
generation, for now I am in a different generation and recognize that. Ian
Brunskil stated ‘The people look like
people we might know. This is
not the case anymore; they look like people my parents might know. However the
point is still there, it is still insistent. The eyes of these sitters see
through you, they are not interested in capturing you; there is no underlining
narrative or meaning. There a manufactured piece created by another person to
deceive people of the honesty of photography, that it truly captures ones soul.
Since Ruff, there have been many
photographers that tamper with the styles of portraiture and manipulate it to
have a different meaning, however I feel that Ruff was one of the first to set
this ‘sub genre’. He changed the way we perceive portraits, not only did he on
some degree capture his sitters external appearance but was also able to place
them within a society that were growing more and more dependent on the ability
to be able to change who they are. But also that as people in an advancing
world, we are constant consumers in need for answers and are always desperately
trying to seek meaning. We are in awe of the rich, beautiful and powerful and
are constantly trying to adapt ourselves to what we think will gain us higher
recognition. So even though Ruff seeks to disconnect any emotional connection
between his subjects and the viewers he allows us to be open to interpretation
and for us to decide ourselves, the very one thing he is demonstrating a loss
of, identity.
*note* this was an essay I wrote for my third year study of photography and video, documented copy has bibliography of all sources used. Because this study became such an aid in the progress of my work I thought I would add it to my blog.
