Jianghan Lu, Wuhan

Thomas Struth has become known for a variety of series—empty cityscapes, tangled jungles, studies of museum-goers looking at art, psychologically charged portraits—characterized by large-format clarity and seeming objectivity. Originally trained as a painter (he studied with Gerhard Richter), he was one of a notable group of students mentored in photography by Berndt and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Between 1995 and 2002, Struth visited China four times, fascinated by that country’s historic landscapes and busy city streets. Whereas his earlier black and white photographs of cities were rigorously centered and eerily devoid of inhabitants, this photograph of a bustling Wuhan market is chaotically dense, colorful, and filled with people. Printed at a scale to rival painting, it prompts us to consider the historical roles of painting and photography alike, perhaps especially in a global and digital society.