Interieurs (Interiors), 1988

The three prints of this edition are drawn from Thomas Ruff’s early Interieurs (Interiors) series, a photographic study of domestic spaces from the world in which he and his generation were raised. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, Ruff photographed familiar interiors – rooms in his own apartment, his parents’ home in the Black Forest, and the residences of relatives and childhood friends. Without staging or artificial lighting, he captured these spaces exactly as he found them, seeking to document both their factual detail and their quiet atmosphere. Influenced by the documentary clarity of Eugène Atget and Walker Evans, Ruff framed each composition to reflect the character of its setting with precision and restraint. The resulting images are not nostalgic but observational – distilled portraits of a specific cultural and temporal environment. With Interieurs, Ruff offers a subtle yet compelling reflection on memory, place, and the visual language of everyday life.