Retouched
A color photograph of Sophia Loren, which Thomas Ruff saw at an exhibition in Venice in 1995, drew his attention to a method of representation that is as old as photography itself: the coloring of photographs. Just as coloring had been used to enhance the beauty of a star, Ruff decided to apply the same method to ten portraits, which he had seen in the medical textbook Das Gesicht des Herzkranken (The Face of the Cardio Patient) by Jörgen Schmidt-Voigt from the 1950s. He applied “make-up” to the portraits—eye shadow, rouge, and lipstick—with a pigment-free retouching paint.
Retouched
A color photograph of Sophia Loren, which Thomas Ruff saw at an exhibition in Venice in 1995, drew his attention to a method of representation that is as old as photography itself: the coloring of photographs. Just as coloring had been used to enhance the beauty of a star, Ruff decided to apply the same method to ten portraits, which he had seen in the medical textbook Das Gesicht des Herzkranken (The Face of the Cardio Patient) by Jörgen Schmidt-Voigt from the 1950s. He applied “make-up” to the portraits—eye shadow, rouge, and lipstick—with a pigment-free retouching paint.
