A new edition of the 7 à 9 de Chanel has launched a special exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, featuring German photographer Thomas Struth. Alongside him, art critic Anaël Pigeat and student William Basseux explore his career, working methods, and his current thoughts on photography. The event continues on September 21 at the Jeu de Paume, where the gallery is filled with light and anticipation. Thomas Struth, born in 1954 in Geldern, Germany, studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the workshop of Gerhard Richter before becoming a student of Bernd and Hilla Becher, influential figures in photography. In 1978, a scholarship sent him to New York, and he later participated in documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. He received the international Spectrum photography prize in 1997. His work has been displayed at prestigious venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Prado, the Whitechapel Gallery, and the Guggenheim Bilbao. Struth has captured a wide range of subjects, from streets and cities to museum visitors, landscapes, and scientific environments, using his photographs to explore what images can reveal about the world. Struth reflects on his early experiences with music, playing the clarinet and saxophone in his high school jazz band and recording German radio programs, especially jazz, on a tape recorder. He played drums in Düsseldorf in the 1980s and still does today. He jokes that "it's fantastic to be a student at my age," a remark that amuses him. When it comes to images, he describes the process of drawing and making images as deeply personal and private, something that takes a lot of time. He finds photorealistic painting "really stupid" and prefers a more expressive approach. Struth began photographing partly because he was no longer living with his parents and was in public spaces at the Kunstakademie. He feels a sense of responsibility in his work, believing it has a social and political dimension, something to share with others. Struth emphasizes that a photograph can take a very long time to make. One such example is an image he conceived during a nine-hour stop in Seoul in 1986, under a military dictatorship. He noticed residential buildings with numbered sides and the image stayed with him for thirty years. When invited to exhibit in Korea, he requested a study trip, eventually capturing the image in Ulsan after climbing onto a hotel roof at six in the morning. He notes that things can stay in his mind for decades and that he rarely forgets them. While he follows certain rules in his work, he also acknowledges that his choices are subjective, rejecting the idea of objective photography. He describes his photographs as deeply personal, shaped by his feelings and interests. Struth uses his phone to take many photos but admits it reduces his desire to create images, comparing it to "eating too much." His photographs of scientific and technological environments were inspired by a visit to Cape Canaveral and the failed Copenhagen climate meeting. He decided to "photograph the evidence" as long as it was visible, noting a connection to the work of the Bechers, who aimed to document such environments before they disappeared. He has moved away from technology and is unsure of what he will do next, saying he is not "pressed" to decide. He has taken some photos in Hawaii, where his wife is from, and plans to create very dark images, using inkjet prints protected with wax for durability. He recalls a moment when history caught up with him on November 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell, as he photographed at the Louvre that day. His relationship with time and art continues to shape his work and perspective.