PHOTOGRAPHS
Gursky, Andreas
Germany (1955 - )
Ruhrtal
1989
Chromogenic color print
23 1/2 x 32 5/8 in. (59.7 x 82.9 cm) image size; 34 1/8 x 42 3/8 x 1 in. (86.7 x 107.6 x 2.5 cm) frame size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.74
Keywords: Transportation (highway); Landscapes; Architecture (bridge); Human figure

Andreas Gursky is known for his large-scale prints of vast landscapes and architectural spaces. In many of his photographs, such as this one, individual human figures are dwarfed by the immensity of their environment, particularly man-made environments. Here, Gursky has composed the image such that the man-made—the elevated roadway—appears like an alien structure intruding on the landscape rather than fusing with it. In this way, Gursky addresses the changing landscape and the intersection between the natural and the man-made.

-- Label copy for Videowatercolors: Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries, October 15, 2011, to January 22, 2012.