Amerapoora. My-au-dyk Kyoung. is a photographic work by Thomas Ruff. Amarapura was the capital of Myanmar twice during the Konbaung period, first between 1783 and 1821 and then again between 1842 and 1859. Today it is part of Mandalay, the second largest city in the country. There are many temples, pagodas and kyoungs (monasteries) that were not even built or completed when Tripe took his pictures in 1855.

Thomas Ruff – The Unpretentious

Born in 1958 in the Black Forest, Germany, Thomas Ruff first discovered photographic art while studying in Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photography class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Alongside other Becher master students such as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff has also photographed his way up the ranks of the world’s most renowned photo artists. He is a modest man and tends to reject compulsively exaggerated interpretations of his subjects. The art world has honored his search for new forms of expression in photography since the early 1980s with exhibitions in galleries, at documenta, the Biennale, and in many museums such as Munich’s Haus der Kunst, the Tate Liverpool, and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.