Streets

Thomas Struth’s Straßen (Streets) project began in the mid-1970s while he was studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Bernd and Hilla Becher. Around 1976 he systematically photographed the streets of Düsseldorf, producing a grid of 49 black-and-white images that he first exhibited at the academy. The photographs, always taken with a tripod from the exact center of the street, are characterized by strict frontal symmetry, neutral early-morning light, and an absence of people. This methodical approach revealed the architecture and urban fabric as cultural artifacts, a “human creation” that Struth believed became clearer without the distraction of figures. His work was influenced by the cool objectivity of the Bechers, but also by the metaphysical stillness of Giorgio de Chirico and George Segal.

By 1977–78, Struth expanded the series to New York, producing central-perspective views across neighborhoods from SoHo and Tribeca to Harlem and Brooklyn. The images are devoid of spectacle, yet eloquent in their quiet revelation of history, culture, and time embedded in the built environment.

Critics have described them as uncanny, transforming the everyday into something reflective and monumental. This early series became foundational for Struth’s later projects—his color Cities works, the celebrated Museum Photographs, and even his family portraits—establishing a practice rooted in revealing how collective values and histories are inscribed in our surroundings. The project was later collected in the book Thomas Struth: Straßen. Fotografie 1976 bis 1995 (1995), which remains an important document of this formative body of work.

1st image: Crosby Street, Soho, New York 1978

2nd image: Greenwich Street, New York, Tribeca 1978

3rd image: Kreuzstrasse, Düsseldorf 1977