Ralf Tooten
– Biodata
Fascinated by the aesthetics of visual encounters, the personal radiance of human beings and great architecture of all centuries, photographer Ralf Tooten has dedicated his professional life to architecture & portrait photography.
Born in Germany’s Rhineland, Tooten completed his apprenticeship in architectural photography with master photographer Clemens Hartzenbusch in 1978 and then worked as a stills photographer on several seminal German movies including Volker Schlöndorff’s Academy Award winning ‘The Tin Drum’, based on the novel by Günter Grass, and Margarethe von Trotta’s ‘Two German Sisters’, which won the Golden Lion.
After winning the Fifth Polaroid Fine Arts Award in London for his documentation of Artist Gustav Kluge at work, Tooten went on to work for numerous organizations, ad agencies and magazines across Europe. His first coffee table book ‘Eyes of Wisdom’, an intimate portrait collection of the world’s greatest religious leaders, received worldwide attention and bagged the distinguished Hasselblad Master Award in Goteborg, Sweden in 2002.
In 2003, Tooten moved this studio to Bangkok and began photographing the Thai capital at night. His collaboration with acclaimed writer Roger Willemsen resulted in the best-selling book Bangkok Noir, published in 2009.
His 2009-2010 Medical awareness campaign about people who suffer emotionally from living with psoriasis, initiated by Pfizer Inc. and photographed on the Canary Islands, in Spain and in Costa Rica, was exhibited throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.
Enthralled by the exotic aesthetics of the Asian megalopolis, Tooten has spent years documenting the city’s after-dark activities, which he published in the 2009 book, Bangkok Noir. Now with the support of the Goethe Institute and under the curatorial guidance of former Ver Gallery director Josef Ng, Tooten has transferred his shadowy diary into an atmospheric multimedia exhibition at the National Gallery.
In 2013, Tooten’s installation R.C.A., series of gigantic portraits of Thai construction workers in numerous public spaces around Ratchaburi, transforming this small town in central Thailand into an open air gallery. Curated by Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch.
His more recent collection, Ocean Noir, a series of ultra-low light images of oceans around the world, was first exhibited in Bangkok in 2016.
In 2018-2019, Ralf Tooten was selected as one of the Artists for the first Bangkok Art Biennale by Artistic Director Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda and this curator team, to display and screen this Worker Portrait photographs all over multiple locations within Bangkok for four month.
In 2019 and 2020 Ralf Tooten’s work was part of the Group show in Palazzo Merati, Venice, Italy and the BAB Box, the Gallery of the Bangkok Art Biennale.
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Born 1958 Homberg am Niederrhein, Germany
1975-1978 Study architectural photography with Mr. Clemens Hartzenbusch
Cologne, Germany
Ralf Tooten lives and works in Bangkok
Website: www.tooten.com
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Exhibitions
2018
Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, Thailand
2017
Goethe Institute Pop-Up Exhibition – ‘The “worker bees†of Globalization, Cho Why, Bangkok, Thailand
2016
Ocean Noir (Nacht Wellen ) RMA Institute, Bangkok, ThailandÂ
2013
R.C.A. Ratchaburi Construction Worker Open Air, Ratchaburi, Thailand
2011
Bangkok Noir – The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2009
Bangkok Noir – Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2008
A.W.C. Asian Worker Covered – Tang Contemporary Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2004
Eyes of Wisdom, The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2002
Eyes of Wisdom, Museum of Art and Commerce, Hamburg, Germany
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2018 / 2019
Selected Artist for Bangkok Art Biennale 2018/19, Bangkok, Thailand
( art work on display mounted on buildings, run on screens and displayed in gallery space at multiple locations in Bangkok )
2017
Worker Portraits new collection – Cho Why Gallery, Bangkok
2016
Night Wave, RMA Institute, Bangkok, Thailand
2013
R.C.A. Ratchaburi Construction Workers Open Air, Ratchaburi, Thailand
2011
Bangkok Noir – National Gallery ( & Goethe Institute ), Bangkok, Thailand 2010
Naked Truth – Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Naked Truth – Caracas, Venezuela
Naked Truth – San Paulo, Brazil
2009
A.W.C. – Goethe-Institute Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
Naked Truth – Amsterdam Rai + Warf, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Naked Truth – Pascal Vanhoecke Gallery, Paris, France
Bangkok Noir – Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Bangkok Noir – Galerie Reygers, Muinch, Germany
Naked Truth – Museo Nazionale della Scienza, Milano, Italia
2008
E.o.W. Galerie Ulrike Petschelt, Kassel, Germany
A.W.C. – Tang Contemporary Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2006
FCCT, Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand
2005
St.Johnnis Church, Hamburg, Germany
2004
E.o.W. The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
E.o.W. Culture-Center Church Lutterbuche, Hamburg, Germany
E.o.W. RWE Systems / Art Forum, Essen, Germany
E.o.W. Goethe-Institute Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
E.o.W. Photography-Gallery Multimedia, Zingst, Germany
E.o.W. National Gallery of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
E.o.W. Museum Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
E.o.W. Oriega Center, Makati, Philippines
E.o.W. Davao Center, Mindanao, Philippines
2003
E.o.W. Reygers, Gallery for Photography, Munich, Germany
E.o.W. Ecumenical Church Berlin, Germany
E.o.W. Cultural Center Constance, Constance, Germany
2002
E.o.W. Photokina, World Trade Fair of Photography, Cologne, Germany
E.o.W. Museum of Art and Commerce, Hamburg, Germany
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Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2020
Bangkok Art Biennale, BAB Box
2019
Symphonie de Couleurs, Palazzo Merati, Venice, Italy
Bangkok Art Biennale, BAB Box, Bangkok, Thailand
2014
Judge for the 12th international Photographic contest of Thai
Art and Culture Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silapakorn University, Thailand
2013/14
“Migrant Worker” at Museum of Work, Hamburg, Germany
2013
Jugde for the 11th international Photographic contest of Thai Art and Culture
in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silpakorn University,
Thailand
2012
“Thai Trends from Localism to Internationalism” at BACC Bangkok, Thailand.
Judge for the 10th international Photographic contest of Thai Art and Culture
in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silapakorn University,
Thailand.
BACC Bangkok Art/Cultural Center “14” Exhibition, Pilot
project for “Fine Art Contest” powered by ThaiBev and The Royal Society of Thailand
“A walk through Bangkok” Exhibition result’s Ralph Gibson Lecture at Le Meridien Hotel, Bangkok
2011
La Condition Humaine“ Galerie Pascal Verhoecke, Paris, France
Jugde for the 9th international Photographic contest of Thai
Art and Culture in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silpakorn University, Thailand
2010
Augenmerk: Erde – Photo-Gallery, Zingst, Germany
Bangkok Noir – Baltic Biennale, St. Petersbourg, Rusia See Saw Seen 3, DOB Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
Judge for the 8th international Photographic contest of Thai
Art and Culture in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silpakorn University, Thailand
2009
Mapping Invisible Cities, Goethe-Institute Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
The Banyan Tree National Gallery Bangkok, Bangkok,Thailand
The Banyan Tree Meta House Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Judge for the 7th international Photographic contest of Thai Art and Culture in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silapakorn University, Thailand
2008
Crack2 Exhibition, Benchasiri Park, Bangkok, Thailand
Mapping Invisible Cites, Goethe-Haus, Jarkata, Indonesia
PhotoARTAsiaPhotoaExpo
2008
Zen Exhibition Lounge, Bangkok, Thailand
Judge for the 6th international Photographic contest of Thai Art and Culture in Commemoration of Prince Naris Day, Silapakorn University, Thailand
2007
Chapter 75: Clay Overture, Playground, Bangkok/Thailand
2006
Summer Gallery Woischnik, Sag Harbor, Hamptons, USA
2004 Blickverbindung Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Public Collections:
Berlinische Galerie / Museum of Modern Art, Photography, Architecture – Berlin, Germany Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Germany
National Gallery of Thailand
National Gallery of Malaysia
and private collectors