One continuous subject of Thomas Struth s complex
photographic oeuvre is the group portrait. Initially,
he photographed people from the circle of his close
friends and acquaintances, who he asked to sit for
him at least as duos. Soon the groups grew to
feature entire families, families outside Europe, and
from other social strata. Encounters with artists, collectors,
museum staff all gave Struth an occasion to
create group portraits that bear comparison with the
great examples set by Velazquez through to Goya.
Transposed onto a modern medium and set in our
present world, Struth s large-format family portraits
exhibit an undeniable representative character.
The need to present oneself as an individual in the
framework of a hierarchical order remains manifest
even in the ostensibly most relaxed of groupings.