The Museum of Modern Art I, New York

After his photographs of empty city streets and portraits in the 1970's and 1980's, Thomas Struth began making photographs of visitors looking at art in museums. He began his third series with photographs of people in the Louvre in Paris and went on to create a series of arresting images from other major museums of the world. The artist began this series of photographs of the inside of galleries, churches and museums in an attempt to build a connection between the viewer and the image, and to try to initiate an understanding in historical relationships between the viewer and the act of making a new picture. As Struth said, "I felt a need to make these museum photographs because many works of art, created out of particular historical circumstances have now become mere fetishes...and the original inspiration for them is fully obliterated. What I want to achieve with this series...is to make a statement about the original process of representing people leading to my act of making a picture." (Thomas Struth, quoted in www.moma.org) Museum of Modern Art I is a strong example of this series. At first glance it appears to be an attempt to photograph the Jackson Pollock painting but visitors to the museum have got in the way. In fact, the composition of this photograph mirrors the complex randomness and movement in the Pollock painting and the movements of the visitors passing in front of it. Simultaneously, Struth's image gives the viewers the sensation that they too are at the Museum of Modern Art, contemplating Pollock, in a quiet moment while the world passes by.
The painting and the camera mirror each other, both are completely still as this river of people moves between them. Unlike conventional photography, Struth's work does not attempt to freeze a moment in time but is instead seeks to slow time down and grasp the visual complexities of pregnant moments.