Thomas Ruff, press++01.16, 2015, chromogenic print, 72 7/8″ x 91″.

The German photographer Thomas Ruff’s “press++,” showing now at David Zwirner Gallery, comprises space-age images culled from the archival clippings of various American newspapers. Ruff scanned both sides of the original documents and layered them in Photoshop, thus presenting both the photos and the context—the smudges, cropping, commentary, and retouching—that surrounded their initial publication. “I think photography is still the most influential medium in the world, and I have to deconstruct these conventions,” he told Aperture in 2013:

I try to find out how the image was created and in what context—historical, political, or social—the image belongs … There are a lot of different photographs, and different photographs have different intentions. Fine art, medical, propaganda, and of course the most influential image-production machine is advertisement. This transformation, let’s say, of the scientific photography into the art world, or advertising photography into politics (as seen in the last U.S. election)—this modification of images from one intention to another brings about interferences. The image, and the meaning of the image, changes.

“press++” is up through April 30.

press++01.20, 2015, chromogenic print, 89 3/8″ x 72 7/8″.

press++01.36, 2015, chromogenic print, 72 7/8″ x 88 1/4″.

press++01.65, 2015, chromogenic print, 91 3/4″ x 72 7/8″.

All images courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London.