Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher
Praemium Erasmianum Foundation · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Bernd and Hilla Becher
Caption	Water towers and industrial structures by Bernd and Hilla Becher
Birth date	1931–1934 / 1934–2007
Birth place	Siegen, Germany / Potsdam, Germany
Occupation	Photographers, educators
Years active	1950s–2007

Bernd and Hilla Becher were a German photographic couple whose systematic documentation of industrial structures established a typology-based practice influencing late 20th-century art and architecture discourse. Working from Düsseldorf, they produced extensive series of images of water towers, coal mines, blast furnaces, gasometers, and foundries using a direct, frontal style that informed movements associated with conceptual art, minimalism, and the Düsseldorf School. Their archive, pedagogical work, and exhibitions connected institutions, curators, critics, and students across Europe and North America.

Biography

Bernd Becher trained at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and studied under Otto Steinert, while Hilla Wobeser studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and worked in Potsdam and Berlin. They met in the late 1950s and married in 1961, establishing a studio in Düsseldorf that became a nexus for photographers linked to exhibitions at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate Modern. Their careers intersected with figures such as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, and Laurence Wiener through teaching appointments at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and visits from curators like Harald Szeemann, John Szarkowski, and Dorothee von Hantelmann. The Bechers traveled widely across the Ruhrgebiet, Emscher Landschaft, England, Belgium, and France documenting industrial sites that connected to historical events like the Industrial Revolution and locations such as Essen, Dortmund, Sheffield, and Le Creusot.

Photographic Approach and Themes

Using a large-format view camera and exposure methods resonant with practices promoted by August Sander and Walker Evans, the Bechers emphasized typology, seriality, and objective documentation. They rejected the pictorialism debated by critics at the Museum Folkwang and embraced a neutral aesthetic resonant with exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and publications by the International Center of Photography. Themes in their work relate to sites associated with coal mining in the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, the architecture of steelworks at the ThyssenKrupp plants, and vernacular industrial forms seen in silos, blast furnaces, gasometers, cooling towers, and brine wells. Their typological grids invited comparison with typologies by Carl Linnaeus only metaphorically, and their formalism aligned them with artists represented by galleries like Galerie nächst St. Stephan and collectors including Rolf Ricke.

Projects and Series

Major series include studies of water towers, coal bunkers, winding towers, and factory facades exhibited alongside holdings from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Centre Pompidou, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Notable projects involved photographic surveys of the Saarland mining landscape, gas tanks in Hamburg, and foundry complexes near Duisburg. Their works were often presented in grids and typologies comparable to projects by contemporaries such as Bernd Stromberg and historical parallels drawn to photographs in the Deutsches Museum archives. Collaborations and publications appeared with editors and institutions including Stern, Die Zeit, Schirmer/Mosel, and the Hatje Cantz Verlag.

Teaching and Influence

At the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf they taught students who became influential photographers, including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Axel Hütte, and Candida Höfer. Their pedagogy emphasized technical precision, composition, and archival rigor taught in studio critique formats used by faculty at institutions like the Royal College of Art, the Pratt Institute, and the Yale School of Art during visiting professorships and lectures. Their influence reached curators and critics such as Nicolas Bourriaud, Peter Galassi, Clément Chéroux, and Martin Parr, who contextualized their work within exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Alumni networks extended into publishing, gallery representation at Sprüth Magers and Galerie Michael Werner, and academic appointments at universities like Columbia University and the University of Arts London.

Exhibitions and Recognition

The Bechers exhibited internationally in venues including the Documenta exhibitions in Kassel, retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, shows at the Tate Modern in London, and presentations at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. Awards and honors associated with their reputation involved recognition from institutions such as the Leica Hall of Fame, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and national cultural bodies in Germany and France. Curators including Hans Belting, Charles Saatchi, RoseLee Goldberg, and Thelma Golden incorporated their work into surveys of minimalism and conceptual art alongside artists like Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra, and Bernd and Hilla Becher-adjacent photographers.

Legacy and Impact on Contemporary Photography

The Bechers' systematic methods shaped the so-called Düsseldorf School of Photography and influenced contemporary practitioners working in archival and documentary modes, including Gursky, Struth, Ruff, Höfer, Taryn Simon, Edward Burtynsky, and Alec Soth. Their approach informed institutional collecting strategies at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Tate Modern, MoMA, and university collections such as The Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Critical discourse by scholars like Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Hal Foster, and John Berger situates them within debates over objectivity, industrial heritage, and preservation movements exemplified by sites like the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their archives continue to support exhibitions, monographs, and academic research in programs at the Rijksmuseum, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and multiple European and North American universities.

Category:German photographers