Artist Thomas Demand joins Artforum senior editor Pablo Larios to discuss how images are made, circulated, and believed. From media photographs to hand-build models, sets, and copper prints, they consider reconstruction, materiality, AI, and the future of photography.
Thomas Demand – Pablo Larios
In collaboration with Artforum
About the speakers
Writer, art critic and International Editor at Artforum, Pablo Larios writes on contemporary art and visual culture. He commissioned the magazine’s November 2025 feature on the future of photography, featuring contributions from Thomas Demand, Florian Ebner, Roxana Marcoci and Jeff Wall, among others. Born in Honduras and raised in the United States, he lives in Berlin.
Born in Munich in 1964, Thomas Demand is a German artist known for his photographs of life-size reconstructions made from paper and cardboard, based on media images or his personal archive. His work questions photography’s claim to objectivity and explores the gap between reality and representation. He has exhibited at institutions including MoMA, Jeu de Paume and Fondation Cartier. He lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.
Thomas Demand, Autumn, 2025 – Courtesy of the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery, Sprüth Magers, Esther Schipper, Taka Ishii Gallery
Other visuals
- Portrait – Thomas Demand – Courtesy Brigitte Lacombe