Photography Personal Study

How did the Bechers’ typologies of Industrial Architecture influence a new generation of photographers?

Introduction

“When we noticed these sites were disappearing, we thought they were worth preserving at least in picture and decided to do that, to miniaturise them and take them with us.” – Bernd Becher (1.1)

“We considered it our duty and focused exclusively on that.” – Bernd Becher (1.1)

“That these sights were disappearing was the only reason, we were really fascinated by them, nobody else was doing what we were doing. There was the thrill of the new… the adventure.” – Hilla Becher (1.1)

“The aesthetic of industry is based on function. Its basically scaffolding with containers and pipes, but to me they are sculptures.” – Bernd Becher (1.1)

Within this essay I am going to be exploring how the Bechers’ found their unique style of work based around industrial architecture and how they developed what has become known as Typologies. In order for me understand what motivated them to focus on structures like water towers, blast furnaces, gas tanks and so on I will be investigating their main influences such a Karl Blossfeldt, August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzsch. I am also interested in their methodology of working, including why they photographed in such specific conditions and the reasoning behind their alternative layouts, in particular with reference to their grid formats. The Bechers’ legacy is not only associated with  their inclusion in the New Topographic’s exhibition in 1975 but their teachings at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie where students such as Andrea Gursky, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer and Thomas Ruff who, amongst others, have become celebrated stars in contemporary photography.

Following the completion of my A Levels my intention is to further my eduction with a closer focus on Architectural studies which have been an area of specific interest for a considerable duration of time. From this interest, it seemed natural to focus my personal study around this for my art projects as well, although I was looking more at the form and function of certain buildings rather than how they are documented. Due to this I decided to work on Bechers’ projects within this personal study, as they didn’t view the buildings they photographed as being works of art which are extraordinarily beautiful. By instead seeing beauty in their simplicity and choosing to document the buildings which were slowly starting to disappear, the Bechers’ created a huge archive of Industrial buildings which may not be around for much longer. Following on from this idea of preserving things the way they are, I decided to form a study on houses within my estate focusing on the similar design for all fifty odd constructions. Due to new added extensions, colour variations and so on I was interested in creating a comparison between all the different houses and exteriors, which contrasts to my AS project where I was primarily focused on exploring the interiors of contrasting houses in Jersey.

Before starting this study, I was inspired by a photographer who was initially a student of the Bechers’, Andreas Gursky. Although I will discuss him later within this project, his work looks at large crowds of people and particularly busy areas. Whilst Gursky’s work seems to focus more on the characters in a space, I wanted to focus on the kinds of places where people gather, whether purposely or accidentally. My response to this makes up the first section of my final printed portfolio.

Chapter 1: The New Objectivity Movement

In the 1920’s, the style titled ‘New Objectivity’ developed within Germany, which focused on the objective world, rather than the more romanticised, abstract work which was popular at the time. The Term Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) was originally the title of an exhibition (1925) by artist Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, with the purpose of showcasing the work of artists working in a post-expressionist style.

“(The exhibition) organized around five thematic sections and featuring 180 works by more than 50 artists, the exhibition mixes painting, photography, and works on paper to bring them into a visual dialogue.”(4.2)

‘New Objectivity’ is known as being a documentary approach to photography with sharply focussed images, which was, as mentioned before, considerably controversial compared with the popular art style of the time (abstraction and pictorialism). The Bechers’ sharply focused style of photography was heavily influenced by photographers from within The New Objectivity movement,  most notably Karl Blossfeldt, August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzsch, whom were all german photographers linked to this movement. These three photographers are written about on several occasions within the Bechers’ book ‘Typologies of Industrial Buildings’.

Karl Blossfeldt

Blossfeldt is a very clear influence for the Bechers’, which is visible through the similarities in the way both photographers shoot their images. Blossfeldt was a German  photographer, sculptor, teacher, and artist. He made most of his images with a homemade camera which was able to magnify the subject up to 30x its size, mainly used to photograph plants. This camera revealed extensive detail with regards to a plant’s natural structure and he used these images to educate his students studying sculpture of the design elements in nature. As these plants were so magnified, and the parts photographed were taken out of context of the whole plant, they appeared to be almost manmade. The way Blossfeldt presented these images in a comparative way greatly inspired the grid layout that the Bechers’ used in their typologies. Blossfeldt’s style was quite scientific in the way that it classified different plants and their forms, which is effectively the same as what the Bechers’ went on to do within their work, only they were studying the forms of Industrial Architecture, rather than plant forms. Blossfeldt’s method of framing the plants is also similar to the style the Bechers’ adopted in their work, leaving grey space as a constructed border around the top of the object to make it stand out as the focus. Another key example being their method of photographing the subject from the same heights and angles.

“The Bechers’ approached photography the way a botanist might approach the cataloguing of flora and fauna… their work was contrasted to that of Karl Blossfeldt (during the exhibition: ‘Typology, Taxonomy and Serial Photography’)” (1.4)

August Sander

During military service, August Sander worked as an assistant based within a photographic studio in Trier. By 1904 he had opened his own studio in Linz. After moving to a suburb in Cologne in 1909 he began to photograph the rural farmers who lived nearby,plain and ordinary german people. Around three years later Sander left this urban studio so he could continue photographing in the field, finding subjects along the roads he traveled by bicycle. Sander aimed to photograph as many types and classes of people as he could, working to capture every person that he would see. Sander wasn’t categorising and grouping the images in the same way as the Bechers’ went on to with their images, however his style of collecting images of supposedly ordinary subject matter inspired the Bechers’ to attempt photographing many versions of the same industrial buildings, to build up an archive of those particular constructed sites to be compared later.

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer who began to pursue photography as a full-time career in 1925. He rejected both Pictorialism, an imitation of painting, and the experimentation of photographers who relied on startling techniques. His photographs recorded the exact detail of natural forms, like plants (although in a very different way to Blossfeldt), industrial and mass produced objects presented in a way similar to scientific illustrations . In his book Die Welt ist schön (“The world is beautiful”), his images showed both nature and industry in his style of photography, which was clear and precise. These images were closely related to paintings of the Neue Sachlichkeit (“The New Objectivity”) movement. His work was very documentary and he successfully combined the recording of structures with good composition and framing.

Chapter 11: The Bechers’ link to the New Topographic’s

Typologies are the study of types and the interpretation of types, and they are mainly associated with the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The Bechers’ didn’t create this style by themselves which is visible when you analyse their influences and can begin to see how their style came about. Perhaps the  most obvious comparisons to the Bechers’ is the work of The New Topographic’s photographers, an exhibition curated by William Jenkins. He selected eight young american photographers whose images all had a similar banal aesthetic.

“As it had in the prewar era, the built environment emerged as a major topos, as did the search for a neutral, non-judgemental way to photograph it” (10.1)

This group of photographers, who fitted this non-judgemental, banal style of photography was comprised of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel Jr. Their photographs all focused on the western world and, all apart from one of the photographers, photographed in black and white in the same style as Bernd and Hilla Becher.

“The sharp edge-to-edge clarity of these images violated the traditional romantic iconography of the west” (10.1)

I will be studying Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, to attempt a more concise understanding of this photographic style with an aim to grasping the  connection between the Bechers’ and their working influences.

Robert Adams

Adams is an American Photographer whose work was part of the New Topographic’s exhibition. His work demonstrates the vast and beautiful nature of America with particular reference to the banal aesthetic that made Jenkins chose him for the exhibition. His work began taking pictures of Colorado, a suburb of Denver, where he bought a 35mm reflex camera and he experimented with photographing nature and the architecture of the area.

“I thought I was taking pictures of things that I hated, but there was something about these pictures… they were unexpectedly, disconcertingly glorious” Robert Adams (2.1)

Using Ansel Adams zone system with extreme precision within his photographs to contrast light and dark areas, Adams creates particular points of interest. Photographing in black and white also heightens this romanticised effect which Ansel Adams was well known for. This method of enhanced Romanticism transforms less aesthetic areas, typically comprised of human structures, to carefully constructed settings of interest. His images also tend to have an underlying message, whether they’re trying to pass across a statement regarding deforestation, human attitude, or the man made impact on nature, this is possibly the most crucial element of his portfolio.

“The final strength in really great photographs is that they suggest more than just want they show literally.” Robert Adams (2.1)

Lewis Baltz

Baltz is a photographer I initially studied last year when looking at Landscape photography. Although at the time I had very little interest in his work, I have come to appreciate his style and technique whilst enjoying his images to their full extent. I particularly love how he would take places which have very little interest to most people, industrial buildings that are often very ugly, and he then shows them in a new light to make their banal form very beautiful. Baltz’s images focused, like some of Adam’s work, on the man made landscape: offices factories and car parks.

“Photography begins with a world that’s perhaps overfull, and needs to sort out from that world what’s meaningful” Lewis Baltz (3.1)

Similar to the photographers mentioned previously within The New Topographic’s exhibition, The Bechers’ work was focused on documenting seemingly banal forms. Only when the complete collection of photos are seen together is it possible to fully appreciate the deeper level of interest hidden within the layers of their connections. Comparing small differences of initially similar industrial buildings has interest in itself however after seeing the images together as a complete project you can begin to appreciate each image individually. This element of scale and layered meaning is perhaps the most crucial part of the Bechers’’ work. Taking hundreds of images of these different industrial structures from all over the US, along side the precision of their photos, stays true to their style and makes their extensive portfolio especially impressive.

The question I ask myself repeatedly while viewing their work however is in regards to their style and ability to keep a constant visual theme throughout their extensive body of work.

Chapter 111: How did the Bechers’ influence a new generation of photographers?

Bernd Becher went on to teach at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1976-96 where he influenced many photography students who then went on to make a name for themselves within the photographic community. Notable students included Thomas Ruff, Elger Esser, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky. I will be studying the latter two photographers from that short list below to see if Becher’s style and methods of shooting continued through to his students.

Thomas Struth

Struth is a German Photographer known for his images of urban scenes, jungles, and portraits.

“Much of his early works are black and white photographs of urban scenes, particularly industrial spaces and deserted streets, which reflect the changing conditions of contemporary society in his observations of architecture and urban development.”

This kind of edge to his work shows a clear  influence from the Bechers’ work and teaching. You can tell when you look at his portfolio with the Bechers’ that he picked up a distinctive style from their teaching. His outdoor landscapes all seem to be taken with a grey, cloudless sky with minimal expressive effects. Soft but natural lighting is a key example of this which mirrors the conditions used by the Bechers’ within their work.

Andreas Gursky

“Gursky studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in the early 1980s and first adopted a style and method closely following Becher’s systematic approach to photography, creating small, black-and-white prints. ”

His current work is known for its scale and colour, with images focused on the effects of capitalism and globalisation on a contemporary lifestyle.

“Gursky often composes his landscapes from aloof, elevated, almost godlike vantage points” (10.2)

Gursky appears to have taken inspiration from his knowledge of the Bechers’’ use of scaffold to achieve God-like vantage points. This is evident in his photographs focused on industrial build which are all taken from the same angle with a fixed vantage point.

Chapter 1v: Conclusion

Having studied these dramatically different photographers, both influenced and were influenced by the Bechers’’, it is clear to see how their study of Typology Industrial Architecture has created a new style of photography and has inspired several generations of art photographers.

The Bechers’ extensive studies are possibly the best known work within their photographic circle, with the work that they produced creating a new way of thinking about photography among contemporary artists. Prior to Bernd and Hilla, the idea of solely focusing on one subject matter and being so precise with photographing it in the same way every time was very rare. Now however there is a growing number of photographers who devote their skills to one thing, for example Helge Skodvin took many landscape photos containing the Volvo 240, a typology in a similar sense to the Bechers’, but a slightly looser style. Another example is Jason Vaughn, who captured Hides in various locations. His photography is very much like the work of the Bechers’, but again has slightly looser guidelines in order to create a new style off the Bechers’ very strictly ruled Typologies.

The Bechers’ teaching was also a big part of their legacy, creating students who have become some of the best known contemporary photographers within modern society. With Andreas Gursky’s photos being sold for millions, a feat growingly rare for contemporary photographs, he is the most expensive photo-artist of our day. So many of these modern-day Bechers’ have taken to working in a typology style with key examples including Candida Höfer, with her images of libraries and theatres, and Thomas Struth with his work based on an artwork’s audience.

“The Bechers’’ rejection of colour and large formats has made it easier for the younger photographers to find a path of their own” (1.5)