The German photographer Thomas Struth was on honoured with the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Raising Public Awareness on Cultural Heritage 2024 at a ceremony on October 21, 2024, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal. This prestigious European award recognizes Struth’s outstanding ability to convey European culture and values through his photography.
Thomas Struth, born in 1954, studied photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the city where he launched his first photo series in the 1970's of the urban streets. He currently works between Berlin and New York. His work, described as ‘genre defying’, and ‘often penetrating places of the human imagination in order to scrutinise the landscape of invention, technology, and beyond’. His work often captures relationships between humans and non-human objects, landscapes, and cultural settings.
Photo credit: Thomas Struth Wikimedia commons
His work, spanning from the 1970's to today, captures lived spaces. Starting from the empty streets of Dusseldorf where he studied, In the 1980’s Struth’s work started capturing human activity. Except for a series of family portraits, his work never included portraits of individuals but rather spaces that are lived in, such as works from his museum series which he continues to contribute to today.
Photo: Thomas Struth, Museo Del Prado 2005. Flikr.
He focuses on the worlds within and around the object, such as a flower series, Dandelion Room Winterhur, completed throughout the early 1990’s, where he documented the floral life around a hospital wing. He said about the series, that he was concerned that ‘patients might be ‘missing’: images of local landscapes and flowers with an intense colour.’ As “In the hospital, the body is in a heightened condition, even in a state of alarm. This led me to choose an approach where one particular detail of each flower would be highlighted, as an analogy to the condition of illness in which one part of the body that we are usually not so aware of becomes the centre of attention.”
As an almost metaphor for European Identity at large, ‘his images are a powerful testimony to how heritage is after all human, and is not a static concept but a living force that we build that shapes us as a society and influences our future.’ said Madame Maria de Lurdes Craviero, Portuguese secretary of state for culture.
At the ceremony he was praised and a speaker said ‘The work of this year’s winner is also a vehicle to foster understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity, not only as a legacy but also as a living and dynamic asset that shapes our collective identity.’ The atmosphere of the event was jovial, drawing from shared and distinct cultural references and finding a space of unity.
Established in 2013, the Helena Vaz da Silva Award is named after the Portuguese journalist and cultural activist who dedicated her life to promoting cultural heritage and European identity. The award is presented annually by Europa Nostra in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Centro Nacional de Cultura.
It celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions to raising awareness of Europe's cultural heritage. Previous recipients include renowned figures such as Italian author Claudio Magris, British historian of Antiquity Bettany Hughes, and Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo, each recognized for their efforts to highlight and preserve Europe's cultural legacy.
Photo Credit: creative commons 2.0 Thomas Struth at the National Gallery London
