BERND AND HILLA BECHER

typology/tʌɪˈpɒlədʒi/nounnoun: typology; plural noun: typologies

a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences.
- study or analysis using a classification according to a general type.

Bernhard “Bernd” Becher and Hilla Becher were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures, often organised in grids. For over 40 years, Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed the architecture of industrialisation: water towers, coal bunkers, blast furnaces, gas tanks and factories. They did so in an obsessively formalist way that defined a style, and made them one of the most dominant influences in contemporary European photography and art. Their work had a documentary style as their images were always taken in black and white, however, their photographs never included people. Both subjects addressed the effect of industry on economy and the environment. “I became aware that these buildings [blast furnaces] were a kind of nomadic architecture which had a comparatively short life—maybe 100 years, often less, then they disappear,” the artists said of their work. “It seemed important to keep them in some way and photography seemed the most appropriate way to do that.” They began collaborating together in 1959 after meeting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957. Bernd originally studied painting and then typography, whereas Hilla had trained as a commercial photographer. After two years collaborating together, they married. As the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ or the ‘Düsseldorf School’ they influenced generations of documentary photographers and artists and have been awarded the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.