Thomas Struth - Unconscious Places - 2020

The inimitable style of Thomas Struth is centerpiece of this new compact edition of his extraordinary collection of urban views, created between 1970 and 2010.

Thomas Struth is one of the most renowned photographers to emerge from the Becher School of Bernd and Hilla Becher. In this celebrated volume, Struth presents a series of urban scenes of cities such as Edinburgh, Lima, Pyongyang, Naples and New York, all captured under similar conditions: devoid of human activity. Struth defines these banal buildings, deserted streets, and anonymous façades as "unconscious places"—environments that acquire meaning only through the observer.

Captured with exquisite technical mastery and presented with a powerful, sober neutrality, Struth's images allow us to fully appreciate the character of a city, from the telephone cables overhead to the sidewalk below.

The illuminating essay by the renowned sociologist Richard Sennett shows how Struth's sober, lucid photography leads the viewer to draw their own conclusions, rather than imposing a predefined perspective.

The interaction that results between photographer, viewer and landscape could be the key to understanding how architecture influences our daily lives.

Thomas Struth is one of the best-known German contemporary photographers. His works have been exhibited in numerous shows, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and the Haus der Kunst in Munich. He lives between Berlin and New York.

Richard Sennett is a Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He is the founding director of the New York Institute for the Humanities and in 2018 was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire and a member of the British Academy.