In the 1970s, Thomas Ruff was a member of the Düsseldorf School, a group of young photographers educated by Bernd and Hilla Becher at the prestigious Kunstakademie Düsseldor. In the 1980s, Ruff became an internationally renowned photographer for his examination of the “grammar of photography.” Working in all styles—portraiture, landscape, architectural—Ruff used the camera to investigate the process of photography itself. In recent years, Ruff has approached imagery as an expression of light. He set up a science lab in his studio, placing glass objects on top of a whiteboard and photographed beams of light going through various prisms and cylinders. The result is an abstract and technical analysis of light as phenomenon. Other works by the artist are also on view, including a never-before-seen print from Ruff’s most famous series “Porträts.” —Lucy Horowitz