Born in Leipzig (GE) in 1955, Gursky studied under Michael Schmidt at the Folkwang University of the Arts (Essen) and graduated in 1980. Until 1987, he studied under Bernd Becher and Kasper König at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and completed his master’s degree under Becher in 1985. He served as a professor at Düsseldorf Art Academy from 2010 to 2018. Gursky is considered part of the first generation of the “Becher School”, known as the most important school of thought in contemporary photography. As they have been described as a school that puts typology in photography into practice, Gursky also creates an underlying theme following the types of phenomena in a naturalistic way. At the same time, he introduced a transcendental spectacle into photographic expression through techniques such as digital photographic composition and processing. His major solo exhibitions were held at Fondazione MAST (Bologna, 2023), Amorepacific Museum of Art (Seoul, 2022), Museum der bildenden Künste (2021), Kunstmuseum Basel (2018) and The National Art Center, Tokyo / The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2013-2014), etc. Gursky also has held large-scale retrospectives at museums such as Haus der Kunst (Munich), Istanbul Modern, Sharjah Art Museum, National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, 2007-2008), and at MoMA (NY), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2001-2002). His works are in the collection of major contemporary art museums and institutes around the world. In 2011, “Rhein II” (1999) was sold at Christie’s (NY) for $4.3M, setting a record for the world’s highest bid for a living photographer’s work.