Born in 1931 in Siegen (DE). He died in 2007 / Born in 1934 in Postdam (DE). She died in 2015 in Düsseldorf (DE)
1978-1985
Black and white photograph, gelatin-silver print
40 x 30 cm
Year of Purchase: 1989
The approach adopted by Bernd and Hilla Becher results from a twofold awareness: the fragility of the industrial past and the use of photography as an objective and neutral means of expression. Since the 1960s they have been inventorying industrial buildings from all over the world in thematic series. The images are created using an identical process: frontal viewpoint, neutral background, absence of any light effect, grey tone range. This formal radicalness and the way the buildings are categorized in series does away with any possibility of this turning into an historical or sociological study of the Industrial Revolution. What is involved is the storage of the memory of a threatened or endangered past. The Bechers are part and parcel of the tradition of a form of documentary and encyclopaedic photography, as practised by Eugène Atget for Vieux Paris. The serial work also brings out the basic features of each construction. A well-documented observation of 12 châteaux d’eau Twelve Water Towers (1978-1985) helps us to grasp the diversity of the forms and materials of these functional structures. This work illustrates the industrial history of Germany and France, and Lorraine in particular, with water towers from Hayange, Forbach and Thionville. The Bechers’ photographic variations freeze and magnify the industrial heritage, whose fragile constructions have at times been regarded as ‘anonymous sculptures’.
Sophie Richard