Bernd and Hilla Becher

Conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo, Bernd and Hilla Becher worked on a single subject —the systematic documentation of industrial architecture of Western Europe and North America. The structures, spanning water towers, blast furnaces, cooling towers and gas tanks, once fuelled the modern era were on the verge of obsolescence.

The Bechers met in 1957 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and two years later, began their lifelong collaboration. Their synergy combined Bernd’s interest in industrial architecture with Hilla’s expertise in photography. Their systematic approach involved photographing industrial sites in a uniform, objective style, with a focus on symmetry, composition and neutral lighting. This meticulous method allowed them to create coherent series that highlighted the formal qualities of these structures, often overlooked in conventional photography.

Hilla Becher, née Wobeser, was born in Potsdam, Germany, in 1934. She was exposed to photography early in life — her mother, having attended a photography school, worked in a photography studio. Hilla took up photography at the age of 13 with a 9 x 12 cm plate-camera and began working on commission and later as a commercial photographer in Düsseldorf.

Bernahrd ‘Bernd’ Becher was born in Siegen in 1931. He studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künst Stuttgart and typography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The duo’s choice of subject stemmed from the industrial sites Bernd knew from his childhood.

The Bechers arranged their photographs into grids or series, which they called ‘typologies’, showcasing the variations and similarities between different structures from different regions, revealing their distinct yet analogous forms. Their focus on industrial architecture was not merely an archival endeavour but a way to elevate these functional structures to the level of art.

The Bechers went on to teach at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. They were instrumental in establishing the Düsseldorf School of Photography, influencing a generation of photographers, including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. Their work has been widely exhibited, with notable shows and retrospectives at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London and more.