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subjects of the works of “...industrial structures-water towers, blast furnaces, gas tanks, mine heads, grain elevators, and the like-in the late 1950s.” (Heckert, Virginia) Bernd and Hilla Becher's once said about the works, “The idea is to make families of objects,” or, on another occasion, “to create families of motifs become humanized and destroy one another, as in Nature where the older is devoured by the newer.” (Heckert, Virginia) Bernd and Hilla Becher's works are shown as a group to establish a “...movement itself from image to image to image aimed to be the story more than did the sum of the collected parts, regardless of whether it is the movement of the photographer himself or herself, or the camera, or the movement of our own eye as it skips from one photograph to the next.” (Heckert, Virginia).
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the years Hilla and Bernd Becher have had conflicting photographic approaches towards their subjects. Hilla wanted the subject to be photographed with its surroundings, while Bernd wanted the subject to be the only focal point. Becher's photographs are studies of industrial architecture and landscapes, the composition of the photograph forces the viewer to examine the structure. The photographs were captured during overcast skies early in the morning, to remove shadows and convey as many details as possible. When displayed, the images are often grouped in a grid pattern by subject or as diptychs.
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different structures,” is how they describe their ambition. Through photography, we try to arrange these shapes and render them comparable. To do so, the objects must be isolated from their context and freed from all association.” (Heckert, Virginia) Heckert then moves towards working between three separate attitudes that she states each can be said to be driving Becher project; commitment, delight, and enlightenment. Heckert concludes with an overview of Bernd and Hilla Becher's project criticisms and triumphs.
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an intern for Walter
Eichgrun, a working studio and commissioned photographer, in 1951, while studying photography at a vocational school and finishing her high school degree in Berlin. She spent three years working on commission with Eichgrun and did various solo assignments. In 1954, she and her mother moved to West Germany, where she worked as a freelance photographer in Hamburg. In 1957, she was offered a job in Düsseldorf, Germany as an advertising photographer and around 1958, she enrolled into the
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depict anything in an untrue fashion', by committing themselves to an ethic of representation free of bogus political elevation or degradation, they realize one leg of their generation's postmodern affect". Such is the voice of Hilla and Bernd's work: they sought to represent
Germany without ideology and without a politically charged atmosphere.
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The beginning of their on-going project was part of the “...polemical return to the “straight” aesthetics and social themes of the 1920s and 1930s in response to the postpolitical and postindustrial subjectivist photographic aesthetics that arose in the early postwar period.” (Heckert, Virginia) Most
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brought a visual pace that was "ever-accelerating, ever expanding" and highly juxtaposed to the past, more subdued, Germanic lifestyle. Becher sought to capture the underlying function and organization of this new ideal by ultimately picturing these differences in industrialization. Becher's work is
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Hilla is credited for aiding in the start and structuring of the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf's Photography department. Hilla photographed with an 8×10 large format camera and processed her negatives by hand. After 50 years of photography the Bechers developed a distinguishable stylistic aesthetic. Over
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Becher's work was innovative in that, by capturing the post-war, she has ultimately defined
Germany before mass industry and by the idealized past. Stimson, from Tate Paper, writes "by shooting the grand icons of the Machine Age 'straight-on' so they do not, they have claimed 'hide or exaggerate or
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In an interview with Süddeutche
Zeitung Magazin, Hilla Becher claimed that her husband disliked photography at the beginning of the career. Originally a sketch artist, Bernd believed that photography was more a "means to an end" to further detail in his sketches rather than its own artistic medium.
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Hilla Becher was exposed to photography early in life. Becher began photographing at thirteen years old with a 9×12 cm plate-camera. Becher photographed her teachers in high school. She printed and sold photographs at postcard size for the teachers. She was expelled from high school and became
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Bernd and Hilla Becher's state that they have always been upfront about the concept, “things which can be interesting for technical historians, are not visually interesting for us.” Then continue, “We want to offer the audience a point of view, or rather a grammar, to understand and compare; the
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and company. Concepts such as ‘New
Objectivity.’ Carrying forward Bernd and Hilla Becher's work is the machine age photographers, albeit complexly. Some describe it as “industrial archaeology” or “a contribution to the social history of industrial work.” Some criticisms of the concept, that those
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studying graphic design and printing techniques. She was "the first student to be admitted to the class on the basis of a portfolio consisting solely of photographs." She was also the lead instructor in the darkroom after she completed her apprenticeship with Walter Breker.
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region where Bernd was raised, and two years later, the couple got married in 1961. The
Bechers traveled in a Volkswagen photographing industrial sites all over Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, then eventually, Britain and the US.
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The Becher's wanted to focus on what the images provide to the viewer when viewed together, e.g. an anatomy of the relations between constituent parts. Bernd and Hilla Becher's background with
Germany and the inspirations from works of
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often said to be continuous in that each photograph cannot stand on its own; Becher's work is a body of work and a thematic response in framing the political, enlightening, and responsive post-war
Germany.
192:. Her mother attended Lette-Haus, a photography school for women, and occasionally worked in a studio, retouching photographs. Her father was a high school language teacher, later drafted to World War II.
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In response to a post-war
Germanic period, Becher's "subjective photography" tries to humanize, naturalize, and synthesize Germany's history and idealization within the industrialized comportment. The
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Bernd died at 75 years old on 22 June 2007 from complications during heart surgery. By that time, their work had achieved worldwide acknowledgements, fascinating other photographers such as
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In the same interview, Hilla maintained that though the couple worked as a team, Bernd was the driving force because he was more of a perfectionist than she was.
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In 1957, Hilla Wobeser met Bernhard Becher, known as Bernd at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where the two studied. They began a collaboration photographing the
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146:; 2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) was a German conceptual photographer. Becher was well known for her industrial
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Heckert, Virginia (1990). "A Photographic Archive of Industrial Architecture: The Work of Bernd and Hilla Becher".
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789:"Conscientious | 'Of course we were freaks' - An interview with Hilla Becher (complete translation)"
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Weaver, Thomas; Becher, Hilla (2013). "Hilla Becher in Conversation with Thomas Weaver".
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947:"Installation view of the exhibition, "Projects: Bernhard and Hilla Becher.""
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169:. The Bechers founded the Düsseldorf School of Photography in the mid-1970s.
756:"Hilla Becher, Photographer Who Chronicled Industrial Scenery, Dies at 81"
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The couple, after Hilla's death in 2015, is survived by their only son,
849:"Lost world: Bernd and Hilla Becher's legendary industrial photographs"
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Fforchaman Colliery, Rhondda Valley, South Wales, United Kingdom, 1966
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Conrath-Scholl, Gabriele; Lange, Susanne (20 July 2007).
1031:"The Photographic Comportment of Bernd and Hilla Becher"
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Hanover Mine 1/2/5, Bochum-Hordel, Ruhr Region..., 1973
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Wachsman Institute, University of Southern California
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428:Kabinett für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, Germany
301:Coal Mine, Bear Valley, Schuylkill County... 1974
473:San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, California
470:Institute of Contemporary Art, London (traveled)
377:Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
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304:Consolidation Mine, Gelsenkirchen, Ruhr Region
172:In 2015, she died from a stroke at age 81, in
593:. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 98–175.
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675:(66). The Architectural Association: 17–36.
389:Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach, Germany
161:Becher, alongside her husband, received the
1001:. San Francisco: St. James Press. pp.
731:Bernd and Hilla Becher : life and work
699:Bernd and Hilla Becher : life and work
591:Bernd and Hilla Becher : life and work
307:Coal Tipple, Goodspring, Pennsylvania, 1975
645:. Deutschlandradio Kultur. 13 October 2015
154:, with longtime collaborator and husband,
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733:. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 15.
701:. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 14.
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1062:. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
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338:Galerie Pro, Bad Godesburg, Germany
1080:Annette Bosetti (26 August 2014),
847:O'Hagan, Sean (3 September 2014).
615:"DUSSELDORF SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY"
399:Städtisches Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
386:Galerie Ruth Nohl, Siegen, Germany
328:Galerie Ruth Nohl, Siegen, Germany
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1060:The Guggenheim Collection Online
754:Chan, Sewell (14 October 2015).
418:Städtisches Museum, Ulm, Germany
361:Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe
295:Knutange, Lorraine, France, 1971
1131:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
920:"Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher"
364:Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany
1029:Stimson, Blake (Spring 2014).
924:Encyclopædia Britannica Online
543:Praemium Erasmianum Foundation
489:Museum of Modern Art, New York
486:Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
16:German conceptual photographer
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926:. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc
526:grant to photograph mines in
431:Gegenverkehr, Aachen, Germany
570:List of German women artists
457:Nigel Greenwood Inc., London
383:Goethe Center, San Francisco
266:assumptions are misleading.
1136:German contemporary artists
1126:Architectural photographers
492:Sonnabend Gallery, New York
476:Sonnabend Gallery, New York
460:Sonnabend Gallery, New York
444:Bennington College, Vermont
441:Sonnabend Gallery, New York
283:Framework Houses, 1959–1973
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358:Staatliches Museum, Munich
945:Allison, David; ARTstor.
409:Moderna Museet, Stockholm
292:Winding Towers, 1966–1997
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1053:"Bernd and Hilla Becher"
993:Collier, Laurie (1999).
950:(Digital Photograph fxp)
367:Kunstakademi, Copenhagen
248:, and his two children.
198:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
982:. Museum of Modern Art.
729:Lange, Susanne (2007).
697:Lange, Susanne (2007).
589:Lange, Susanne (2017).
495:Galleria Casteli, Milan
286:Water Towers, 1963–1993
899:Cite journal requires
413:Galerie Konrad Fischer
315:Individual exhibitions
99:Conceptual Photography
643:"Den Blick freilegen"
454:Galleria Forma, Genoa
1121:Artists from Potsdam
980:MoMA: The Collection
952:. ARTstor Collection
310:Water Towers, 1988.
184:Becher was born in
760:The New York Times
550:Großer Kulturpreis
37:Hilla Becher, 2013
918:Blumberg, Naomi.
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105:Notable work
74:(2015-10-10)
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1111:2015 deaths
1106:1934 births
1035:Tate Papers
553: [
532:south Wales
506:Machine Age
239:Thomas Ruff
148:photographs
117:Typographic
1100:Categories
649:15 October
576:References
246:Max Becher
215:Siegerland
174:Düsseldorf
152:typologies
80:Düsseldorf
53:1934-09-02
861:0261-3077
827:0261-3077
768:0362-4331
541:from the
180:Childhood
88:Education
82:, Germany
63:, Germany
681:23595436
673:AA Files
624:19 April
564:See also
319:Source:
165:and the
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1066:7 March
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1056:(Web)
677:JSTOR
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150:, or
1068:2015
1007:ISBN
958:2015
932:2015
905:help
868:2017
857:ISSN
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626:2019
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