ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Thomas Struth, whose 2003 retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was selected as one of the 10 best exhibitions of that year by the New York Times, will speak at Bard College on Wednesday, September 21. Presented by the Photography Program at Bard, the program is open to the public without charge and will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Olin Hall.

German photographer Struth is recognized as one of the most influential artists of his generation. A student of Gerhard Richter and Bernd Becher at the Düsseldorf Academy, Struth helped bring large-scale color photography to the forefront of contemporary art. Struth’s early work explored streetscapes in Japan, Europe, and America. In the 1980s he created large-scale portraits of families and individuals.

His more recent series, the Museum Photograhs (1993–96), focuses on visitors to museums and art and cultural sites around the world. According to Carol Strickland in the Christian Science Monitor, “Struth has made reviving art history a personal crusade.” In 1993 Struth became a professor of photography at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe; in 1997, he was awarded the Spectrum International Photography Prize by the Foundation of Lower Saxony.

Struth was born in 1954 in Geldern, Germany. His work has been seen in solo exhibitions in Salamanca, Spain; Munich; Tokyo; Amsterdam; New York City; Paris; and Hamburg, Germany, among others. Collections that include his work are: Cleveland Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld; Kunsthaus Zürich; Kunstsammlung im Ständehaus, Dusseldorf; Museo d’Arte Moderna, Rovereto; Museum Kurhaus Kleve; Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Ruhrlandmuseum Essen; Sammlung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Space in Progress, Vienna.