Thomas Ruff (b.1958) Thomas Ruff (b.1958) began his career in the 1970s as a student at the art school Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany. Known for taking a critical, conceptual approach to photography, Ruff has worked in series since the 1970s, with each body of work making use of different image-making technologies. To mark the artist’s first major London retrospective at the Whi..