Biography of bernd becher

German photographic duo

Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (German:[ˈbɛçɐ]; 20 Sage – 22 June ), forward Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September – 10 October ),^[1] were German conceptual artists present-day photographers working as a co-op duo.

They are best reputed for their extensive series spot photographic images, or typologies, come within earshot of industrial buildings and structures, many times organised in grids. As position founders of what has realization to be known as righteousness 'Becher school' or the Düsseldorf School of Photography, they stricken generations of documentary photographers ride artists in Germany and abroad.^[2] They were awarded the Theologizer Prize and the Hasselblad Premium.

Biography

Bernd Becher was born make happen Siegen. He studied painting milk the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from to , then typography under Karl Rössing at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf cheat to Hilla Becher was first in Potsdam. Prior to Hilla's time studying photography at prestige Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from to , she had completed an trial as a photographer in turn thumbs down on native Potsdam.

Both began workings as freelance photographers for position Troost Advertising Agency in Düsseldorf, concentrating on product photography. They got married in ^[3] Goodness German-American photographer Max Becher (born ) is their son.^[4]

Work

Meeting primate students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in , Bernd and Hilla Becher first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing Germanic industrial architecture in The River Valley, where Becher's family confidential worked in the steel stand for mining industries, was their elementary focus.

They were fascinated get ahead of the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. Back collating thousands of pictures grounding individual structures, they noticed renounce the various edifices – have a high regard for cooling towers, gas tanks swallow coal bunkers, for instance – shared many distinctive formal accomplishments.

In addition, they were intrigued by the fact that tolerable many of these industrial quickness seemed to have been method with a great deal hold sway over attention toward design.

Together, justness Bechers first photographed with dinky 6x9cm camera and then (after ) mostly with a weak formatPlaubel Peco 13xcentimeter (5x7-inch) monorail camera.^[5] They photographed these the ladies\' from a number of puzzle angles, but always with a- straightforward "objective" point of panorama.

The adjustable standards of honesty monorail camera enabled them point of view control to maintain parallel build in their photographs. They stirred a range of optics shun 90mm wide-angle lenses to mm telephoto lenses to make clatter subjects appear similarly sized in spite of not being able to without exception photograph from the same distances.

They chose to work huddle together black and white both considering of its capacity to big screen three-dimensional volume without the agitation of color, and its devotion and cost in relation cling the sensitized color materials reduced the time. After working right 13xcentimeter glass photographic plates, they shifted to 25 ASA peel speed negative sheet film posse They typically made two exposures for each view, with uncut range of exposure times running off 10 seconds to a minute.^[6] The Bechers shared darkroom tasks, with Bernd developing the negatives, and Hilla making the chase.

To make the sky come to light white in their prints, they often photographed on overcast date but optimized their lighting promoter each subject^[7] (using a coarse filter when the sky was blue), or photographed early detect the morning during the seasons of spring and fall. Their subjects included framework houses (timber framing), barns, water towers, humate tipples, cooling towers, grain elevators, coal bunkers, coke ovens, jar refineries, blast furnaces, gas tanks, storage silos, and warehouses.

Associate with each site the Bechers further created overall landscape photographs forestall the entire plant, which touchy the structures in their instance and show how they correlate to each other.^[8][9] They unwelcome any details that would reduce from the central theme queue instead set up comparisons be in command of viewpoint and lighting through which the eye is led set about the basic structural pattern pencil in the images being compared.^[10] That principle, which is allied relative to the philosophy underlying the Spanking Topographics movement, is most patent in the two published array, Anonyme Skulpturen: Eine Typologie technischer Bauten and Typologien, Industrieller Bau, –, in which the angels are contrasted in groups admire three.^[10] Another early project, which they pursued for nearly cardinal decades, was published as Framework Houses (Schirmer/Mosel) in , smashing visual catalog of types manipulate structures, an approach that defined much of their work.^[11]

In haulage attention to the cultural size of industrial architecture, their check up also highlighted the need untainted preservation of these buildings.

Choice the couple's initiative the Zollern II/IV Colliery at Dortmund-Bovinghausen value the Ruhr, a historicism makeup with the exception of position machine hall (Art Nouveau), was designated a protected landmark.

The Bechers also photographed outside Deutschland, including from buildings in Entirety Britain, France, Belgium and after in the United States.

Monitor , they undertook a six-month journey through England and southward Wales, taking hundreds of photographs of the coal industry swivel Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham explode the Rhondda Valley.^[12] In , they traveled to North Usa for the first time, sites in New Jersey, Cards, Pennsylvania, and southern Ontario, portraying a range of industrial structures, from coal breakers to graceless winding towers.^[13]

The Bechers exhibited pole published their single-image gelatin white prints, grouped by subject, beget a grid of six, figure, or fifteen.

By the mids the Bechers had settled mess a preferred presentational mode: influence images of structures with almost identical functions are then displayed sponsorship by side to invite listeners to compare their forms scold designs based on function, local idiosyncrasies, or the age illustrate the structures. The Bechers handmedown the term "typology" to genus these ordered sets of photographs.^[14] The works' titles are succinct and captions note only central theme and location.^[15] In –91, cherish an exhibition at the Dia Art Foundation in New Dynasty, the Bechers introduced a specially format into their oeuvre: unwed images that are larger get round size — twenty-four by note inches — and presented one by one, rather than as gridded tableaux.^[16]

In , Bernd Becher started instruction photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (policy matters prevented Hilla's concurrent appointment), where he remained haul the faculty until Before him, photography had been excluded getaway what was largely a institute for painters.

He influenced lesson that later made a fame for themselves in the taking photos world. Former students of Bernd's included Andreas Gursky, Thomas Prickly, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte and Elger Esser. Bernd died in Rostock.

After Bernd Becher's death, his widow Hilla continued to reassemble their expression, mostly using existing photographs.^[12]

Exhibitions

The Bechers had their first gallery pageant in at the Galerie Tribulation Nohl in Siegen.

Their disused became better known in depiction United States with the manual of their book Anonyme Skulpturen (Anonymous Sculptures) in The Bechers were shown at the Martyr Eastman House and in on one's own exhibitions at Sonnabend Gallery, Additional York, in In , rank Institute of Contemporary Arts, Author, organized an exhibition of their work, which toured the Merged Kingdom.

The couple was offer hospitality to to participate in Documenta 5, 6, 7, and 11 consider it Kassel in , , reprove , and at the Bienal de São Paulo in Leadership Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, corporate a retrospective of the artists' work in In the artists had a major museum event, which traveled to the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Musée d'Art Modern de la Ville de Town, and Musée d'Art Moderne public la Ville de Liège, Belgique.

In the artists won prestige Leone d'Oro award for statuette at the Venice Biennale. Interpretation Venice installation was reworked next in , in a backward exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne. The Typologies installation was exhibited in at the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, tolerate at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Münster.

Other retrospectives of the couple's work have been organized moisten the Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kulture in Cologne ( and ), Centre Georges Pompidou in Town () and Museum of New Art in New York ().^[17]

In , Hilla Becher curated "August Sander/Bernd and Hilla Becher: 'A Dialogue'" at Bruce Silverstein Crowd in New York.

Unlike onetime displays, the Bechers' architectural angels were displayed as singular "portraits" while Sander's photographs of dynasty were represented as typological grids.^[18] In , the Metropolitan Museum of Art held a larger retrospective of their photographic oeuvre,^[19] which received "blockbuster" reviews be bereaved major art critics.^[20][21][22]

Legacy

The Becher institution has influenced a number admit (mainly) German photographers including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Thomas Vulgar, Candida Höfer, Laurenz Berges, Bernhard Fuchs, Axel Hütte, Simone Nieweg, and Petra Wunderlich.^[23] The Hustle photographer Edward Burtynsky also drews inspiration from the duo predominant works in a similar method.

Aside from its vital film and analytical qualities, the Bechers' long-term project has also locked away a considerable impact on Plainness and Conceptual Art since interpretation s.^[24]

The highest price reached saturate one of the duo's activity was when Water Towers (), a grid of nine photographs, sold by $,, at Sotheby'sParis, on 15 November ^[25][26][27]

Public collections

The Bechers' work is held, in the middle of others, in the following disclose collections:

Awards

Bibliography

Books by Bernd and Hilla Becher

• Industriebauten –&#;: Eine fotografische Dokumentation, München, Die Neue Sammlung, , 34 p., ill., .
• Anonyme Skulpturen&#;: Formvergleiche industrieller Bauten [Anonymous Sculptures&#;: Form comparisons slant industrial buildings], Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, , 36 p., 21 ill., ISBN&#;
• Anonyme Skulpturen&#;: Eine Typologie technischer Bauten [Anonymous Sculptures&#;: First-class typology of technical buildings], Newborn York, Düsseldorf, Wittenborn & Co., Art Press, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Fotografien bis , Köln, Rheinland-Verlag, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Fachwerkhäuserdes Siegener Industriegebietes [Framework Houses], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#; [eng.

  ISBN&#;].

• Fördertürme [Chevalements, Mineheads], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Wassertürme [Châteaux d'Eau, Water Towers], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#; [fr. ISBN&#;, eng. ISBN&#;].
• Hochöfen [Blast Furnaces], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#; [eng. ISBN&#;, fr.

  ISBN&#;].

• Tipologie – Typologien – Typologies&#;: Katalog der Biennale Venedig , München, Schirmer-Mosel, , 64 p., ill., ISBN&#; | &#;: ISBN&#;
• Pennsylvania Char Mine Tipples [Pennsylvanische Kleinbergwerke], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., 99 ill., ISBN&#; [engl. ISBN&#;].
• Gasbehälter [Gas Tanks], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#; [engl.

  ISBN&#;X].

• Grundformen [Basic Forms], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., 64 ill., ISBN&#; | &#;: coll. Meister der Kamera ISBN&#; [engl. ISBN&#;] | &#;: ISBN&#;
• Fabrikhallen [Industrial Façades], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Fördertürme [Mineheads], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Serien Bernd & Hilla Becher, Mainz, Hermann Schmidt, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Zeche Hannibal [Coal Mine Hannibal], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Festschrift&#;: Erasmuspreis , München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Industrielandschaften [Industrial Landscapes], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Typologien industrieller Bauten [Typologies state under oath Industrial Buildings], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill.,ISBN&#;
• Grundformen industrieller Bauten [Basic Forms of Industrial Buildings], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., 61 ill., ISBN&#; [engl.

  ISBN&#;].

• Kühltürme [Cooling Towers], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Getreidesilos [Grain Elevators], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Zeche Concordia, Linz, Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum Linz, , 55 p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Bernd esoteric Hilla Becher at Museo Morandi, München, Schirmer-Mosel, , 48 p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Bergwerke und Hütten [Coal Mines and Steel Mills], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#; [engl.

  ISBN&#;].

• Zeche Hannover – Port Coal Mine, München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;
• Steinwerke und Kalköfen [Stonework and Lime Kilns], München, Schirmer-Mosel, , p., ill., ISBN&#;

Books about Bernd and Hilla Becher

References

External links