Hot Rolling Mill, ThyssenKrupp Steel, Duisburg

Thomas Struth

2010 · Chromogenic print · Photographs

This interior made at the Krupp steel processing plant in Duisburg, Germany, brings Struth full circle to the lifelong subject of his teachers Bernd and Hilla Becher, who, for half a century, meticulously photographed the rapidlydisappearing industrial architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In contrast to the Bechers’ rigorously objective, serialized approach (i.e., photographing only on cloudless days and from uniform height and distance to facilitate comparative analysis), Struthphotographed the hot rolling mill in a manner akin to his celebrated pictures of people looking at art in museums, churches, and other cultural meccas.

Artist

Thomas Struth

Date

2010

Medium

Chromogenic print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Rosenkranz Foundation Gift and Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2014