bernd + hilla becher. blast furnaces, cooling towers, gasometers... their black-and-white images are all taken in the same clinical manner ..................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary




bernd + hilla becher
20 october - 3rd january 2005
centre pompidou, paris
http://www.centrepompidou.fr


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blast furnaces, cooling towers, gasometers, water towers,
lime kilns, compressors, factory halls, head-frames
of mine shafts - not the stuff of excitement for most of us.
however these anonymous industrial structures have
been a fountain of passion for the german spouses becher
who have avidly photographed them for over 40 years.

their black-and-white images are all taken in the same
clinical manner: a front and profile angle provide a clear
and objective documentation of each structure,
the building is placed in the centre of the frame
and isolated from its environment. the mass of photos are
made coherent through categorisation into typologies,
revealing the vast diversity of objects all with the same
purpose. non-identical, yet uniform -
the idiosyncratic differences and similarities become
fascinating.

the becher’s describe their subjects as
'buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style.'
presented collectively, their images transform these buildings
into objects worthy of interest, if not admiration.

the typological approach to photography has historic
as well as aesthetic significance. we turn to photography
because it is a rich means through which to represent -
and interpret, reality - and the documentary aspect to the
bechers work has been widely appreciated by engineering
and architectural historians.


---
time
the objective direction of their work was an unusual choice
as after the two world wars, documentary style had become
impossible. it was of good taste for german artists to
‘ignore history’.

however the bechers had some precedents, for example
in fellow german photographer august sander,
who over the period of forty years took portraits of thousands
of german citizens. the idea of 'the archive as art' was
proposed by his oeuvre. he arranged these portraits according
to social type and occupation - from peasant farmers to
circus performers, to prosperous businessmen.


---
bernd and hilla becher
began taking portraits of modern industrial buildings in old
factory sites in 1959.

bernd becher
was born in 1931, in siegen, germany,
studied painting and lithography and later, typography.

hilla (wobese) becher)
wasborn in 1934, in potsdam, germany.
she studied painting at the kunstakademie düsseldorf,
where she met bernd becher.

the two artists first collaborated in 1959 and they married
in 1961. they began working as freelance photographers,
concentrating on industrial photography.
in 1991, the artists won the leone d’oro award for sculpture
at the venice biennale. this was possible because in 1969,
the artists had called the architectural subject matter of their
photographs, ‘anonymous sculpture’.




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leige-seraing, belgium 1980



terre rouge, esch-alzette, luxembourg 1979



duisbourg-bruckhausen, germany 1995



homecourt, lorraine, france 1980



terre rouge, esch-alzette, luxembourg 1969



sample from the typology - ‘tall furnaces’