Thomas Ruff (b. 1958)

In 1989, Thomas Ruff acquired the entire archives ('Catalogue of the Southern Sky', including 600 negatives) of the European Southern Observatory in the Andes in Chile. These photographs of the stars, taken with a specially designed telescopic lens, are described and catalogued with the precise time of day and exact geographic position. From these photographs, Thomas Ruff selected specific details which he then enlarged to a uniform size. He employed these scientific documents without any claim to scientific thoroughness or methodology, nor with any play on the romantic associations of the sky and heavens.