--- description: A new book and exhibition from the German photographer showcases his use of color on appropriated NASA images. title: Outer Space: Thomas Ruff’s Altered Reality image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79872b24f7816d8c/698799e506f2c159bb33549c/cassini-30-300.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Outer Space: Thomas Ruff's Altered Reality by [Erica Fahr Campbell](/author/erica-fahr-campbell/) ## Erica Fahr Campbell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 17, 2011 6:00 PM CUT  Cassini 30, 2008 Cassini 30, 2008©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York by [Erica Fahr Campbell](/author/erica-fahr-campbell/) ## Erica Fahr Campbell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 17, 2011 6:00 PM CUT The themes that have defined the more than 30-year career of Thomas Ruff were born while the influential German photographer was studying under famed photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1977 to 1985\. Known for their typology work of water towers in which they photographed with a straightforward point of view, the Bechers believed that images which were photographed objectively were more truthful. Bernd Becher criticized Ruff’s student work, faulting his photographs for not being his own. They were simply clichés, Becher argued, mimicking fictionalized images in magazines. Ruff turned the criticism on its head—he began to make images that questioned the very methodology of image making. “Most of the photos we come across today are not really authentic anymore,” Ruff once said. “They have the authenticity of a manipulated and prearranged reality. You have to know the conditions of a particular photograph in order to understand it properly.” It’s easy to see these ideas in Ruff’s space work, the topic of a new exhibition and book called _Stellar Landscapes,_ which premiered at the Frankfurt Book Fair last weekend. In his book, Ruff includes appropriated imagery of space that he has collected over the last 20 years. In some of the photographs, Ruff used images made from NASA satellites, which he downloaded for free online. Ruff often took images that seemed to be abstract renderings of the surface of a planet and used color to abstract them further. Other times, the photographer hand colored the NASA photographs to make abstract scenes more realistic. Ruff has always had a fascination with the dialogue between photography and context of a photograph. It seems only natural, then, that Ruff translated this idea into reworking existing NASA images of to present another—and equally important—view of space. Stellar Landscapes _is on view at the_ [_Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster_](http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/LWL-Landesmuseum-Muenster/ausstellungen/ "undefined") _through January 8\. The book is available now through_ [_Kerher Verlag_](http://www.artbooksheidelberg.com/html/de/programm/detail.html?ID=562 "undefined")_._  ma.r.s. 10, 2010 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  16h 30m / -55°, 1989 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Cassini 16, 2008 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  jpeg icbm 01, 2007 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  ma.r.s. 08, 2010 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Cassini 30, 2008 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Zeitungsfoto 013, 1990 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  jpeg ea 01, 2007 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  zcycles 6021, 2009 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Cassini 04, 2008 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Cassini 02, 2008 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  zcycles 8022, 2009 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Cassini 01, 2008 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Zeitungsfoto 071, 1990 ©Thomas Ruff. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York  Zeitungsfoto 112, 1990 ©Thomas Ruff. 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