The photographer couple Hilla and Bernd Becher founded the Düsseldorf School of Photography and gained international renown for their black-and-white photographs of industrial buildings. Hilla came from a middle-class family in Potsdam, while Bernd came from a family of craftsmen in Siegen. They took photographs in the Siegerland region, the Ruhr area, as well as in Belgium, France, Great Britain and the USA. They depicted their industrial subjects, such as conveyor belts, gas or water towers, blast furnaces and factory halls, in a rigid central perspective, as isolated as possible and without people, centred, without perspective distortions and with uniform depth of field. They often photographed the same object several times, in six or even twelve views from different angles. This resulted in ‘typologies’ of industrial buildings.
Albert Renger-Patzsch was of great importance to the Bechers, as were some representatives of New Objectivity.
In 1976, Bernd Becher was appointed professor of photography at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. The couple saw themselves as teaching together; their students, known as the 'Becher-Klasse' (Becher class), include many internationally renowned photographers such as Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Andreas Gursky, Axel Hütte and Tata Ronkholz.
- Location & Dating
- 1983
- Material & Technique
- Gelatinesilberabzug
- Dimensions
- 60,9 x 50,3 cm
- Museum
- Dauerleihgabe Estate Bernd & Hilla Becher/Max Becher in Zusammenarbeit mit der Photographischen Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln
- Inventory number
- X26.141