THOMAS RUFF

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1992—1996
The Gulf War (1990-1991) marked a huge change in media coverage of war due to the use of night-vision video cameras to capture night bombardments and other techniques. This series was first shown in 1992, the year after the end of the war. Attaching a low-light, night-vision apparatus to a 35mm camera, Ruff began shooting buildings, gardens, and other urban scenes of Düsseldorf. Framed in a pinhole, the distinctive pictures, with green gradations, recall the images that were circulated all over the world at the time of the Gulf War, while transforming ordinary scenes into something filled with unfathomable dread.