Selecting Edits:

Final images selected to edit:

Original —> edit:

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Image 6:

Image 7:

Image 8:

Image 9:

Image 10:

About Typology

A typology is a single photograph or more commonly a body of photographic work, that shares a high level of consistency which involves subjects such as the environment and photographic process.

Typology was first used to describe a style of photography when Bernd and Hilla Becher who are a rare artist couple, began documenting dilapidated German industrial architecture in 1959. The couple described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’.

The Becher’s had worked in the steel and mining industries which was their initial focus. They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. After collecting thousands of pictures of different structures, they noticed that they often shared multiple distinctive qualities. Together, they went out with a their camera and photographed these buildings from a number of different angles, but always with a straightforward and objective point of view. They shot only on overcast days to avoid shadows, and early in the morning during the seasons of spring and fall. If they went out on a bright day they would usually wait for a cloud to block out the light to exclude any necessary light.

A mood board of their work.

Using a large-format view camera, the Bechers methodically recorded blast furnaces, winding towers, grain silos, cooling towers, and gas tanks with precision, elegance, and passion. Their rigorous, standardized practice allowed for comparative analyses of structures that they exhibited in grids of between four and thirty photographs. They described these formal arrangements as “typologies” and the buildings themselves as “anonymous sculpture.”  
 
This posthumous retrospective celebrates the Bechers’ remarkable achievement and is the first ever organized with full access to the artists’ personal collection of working materials and their comprehensive archive.

Who are they?

Hilla Bercher was a German artist born in 1931 in Siegen, Germany. She was one half of a photography duo with her husband Bernd. For forty years, they photographed disappearing industrial architecture around Europe and North America. hey won the Erasmus Prize in 2002 and Hasselblad Award in 2004 for their work and roles as photography professors at the art academy Kunstakademie Dusseldorf.

How did they become a duo?

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.

What did they photograph?

Industrial structures including water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks and factories. Their work had a documentary style as their images were always taken in black and white. Their photographs never included people.

They exhibited their work in sets or typologies, grouping of several photographs of the same type of structure. The are well known for presenting their images in grid formations. 

Edits

final images

Contact Sheet

Final images

EDIT ONE:

EDIT TWO:

EDIT THREE:

Contact Sheets

This is the contact sheet I created for this photoshoot in Lightroom Classic. I used colours as a filtering system; red for photos I won’t use/ won’t edit, yellow for photos I might come back to and edit and blue for photos I will definitely edit or have already edited. I also removed some photos from the contact sheet which I didn’t think would be any use at all.

SELECTING MY IMAGES

Here I selected what images seemed within the aesthetic of New Topographics. Some images seemed out of focus and therefore are marked red, some images are also marked red due to people accidentally being in the image. I took these pictures at Harve De Pas, the industrial and recycling around Fort Regent and some in town on King street. The photos seem to fit the aesthetic with the older designs and engravements on the houses. In King street there are many buildings that have brick coloured design such as Coffee Republic so it gives a more nostalgic feeling to the image.

MY BEST IMAGES:

Below is a collection made up of a small number of images I have taken on different occasions, some in Athens, Greece from this October half term and others more recently around Jersey. I plan to take more in the coming week however as there really aren’t many here.