Typology is a system of putting things into groups according to how they are similar. A typology in photography, refers to one or more photographs that have a high level of consistency. This can be in the form of subjects, environments, etc.

Bernd and Hilla Becher are known best for their work with typologies. These consisted of black and white photographs of an industrial structure.

Case study: Bernd and Hilla Becher

The German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher travelled to large mines and steel mills, and systematically photographed the major structures, such as the winding towers that haul coal and iron ore to the surface and the blast furnaces that transform the ore into metal.

A lot of work goes into composing these collections of photographs. It would be very time consuming to find these similar/same structures. However, I imagine it is also quite time consuming to crop and adjust the images in order to create the sense of uniformity and for them to appear identical in order to produce the typology.

By choosing to make the photographs black and white, it maintains the focus on the subject. If there were external factors, (i.e. background settings, contrasting colours, different times of day) then that would make the photos appear different and eliminate the sense of uniformity within the typology.

Hilla Becher was born on the 2nd of September, 1934 in Potsdam, Germany. She passed away on the 10th of October, 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Bernd Becher was born on the 20th of August, 1931 in Siegen, Germany and he died on the 22nd of June, 2007 in Rostock, Germany. 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.

The husband and wife team of Bernd and Hilla Becher began photographing together in 1959. Bernd and Hilla Becher documented architectural forms referred to as “anonymous sculpture” for over thirty years. Their extensive series of water towers, blast furnaces, coal mine tipples, industrial facades, and other vernacular industrial architecture comprise an in-depth study of the intricate relationship between form and function. Many books on their work are in publication, each titled after the industrial structure that they document.

They always made sure their photographs consisted of capturing the building during a grey, soft- lighted day, which resulted in them creating a form of photography arranged by type that, through repetition, encourages viewers to engage deeply with the formal qualities of the subject matter. Bernd and Hilla Becher aspired to direct the audience’s attention away from the photograph, emphasizing the content rather than light, perspective, or other artistic choices, but in doing so created a school of photography that forced reconsideration both of the presentation of images and the preservation of the built environment.

Some people even referred to their work as sculpture, however the couple made it clear that although it was architecture, their work was photography.

“You have to be honest with your object and to make sure you do not destroy it with your subjectivity, and yet remain involved at the same time“

– Hilla Becher

Image Analysis

This is one of the typologies created by the Bechers, a sequence of 15 photographs of spherical gasholders placed into a grid. The grouping of the gas tanks, causes the audience’s attention to be attracted by the piece, the photos focussing on the strained, round appearance of the structures contrasting with the differently positioned skeletal staircases wrapped around the tanks surface. This encourages analysis of the way the staircases differentiate the structures from one another, without interfering with the function they have as well as the look of the images being grouped together, since each picture links in with all the others, creating a sense of a repeated pattern. This is something that Hilla and Bernd Becher focusses on when taking each photo- they wanted each photo to have the same composition and overall appearance, with small details indicating that each shot is different. The way the Bechers intertwined the idea of typology in their work is very clever- presenting the structures as though they are scientific specimens and therefore showing no indication of their own conclusions regarding the gas tanks and their impact on the world. The way they put all of their photos into a grid is very effective, causing the audience’s attention to be evenly distributed between all of the images. Each photo appears to have been taken at the same time, during the same weather, creating a sense of timelessness in the photos. The bleak, dull sky causes each structure to stand out, another aspect that was clearly important to the photographers. Moreover, the individuality of each structure is stripped away as they are presented as a group, causing them to appear as examples of a type rather than individual structures which don’t express the creativity of their designers.

I ended up photographing different buildings along St Ouens Bay that didn’t fit into the ‘ordinary’ design of typical buildings, or were hidden by nature.

Contact Sheet

There was natural backlighting so I struggles to create the right exposure. To fix this I did exposure bracketing with some of my photos.

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Overall I’m not completely happy with how the shoot turned out because I feel like it doesn’t capture typology in the right way. This is because the buildings are all different shapes so it doesn’t look like an general similar group of photos. However I like that I managed to photograph photos that belong to the same area and holds history.

My favourite photo from this shoot is this one because I really like how the building is solitary and the way the sunlight hits the fog creates warm affect. I think the contrast between the background being misty and faded and the building being clear and standing out is also creates a good composition.

For my second shoot I went to St Brelade Bay and photographed wheels. I liked the variety of texture and size on them and thought it would create a good subject. I really like how the shoot turned out, however I think I could have improved the shoot by finding more wheels as the typology is quite small. I like the running theme of red throughout the images because it links them together and the complete typology has a general rustic feel.

My favourite image from the shoot is this one because of the angle it was taken. It shows a different perspective to all the other photos and includes three of the wheels. I like that the focal point is the first big wheel, then the next two create leading lines to the other side of the image. I also think the fact that it doesn’t particularly follow the rule of thirds and has no central point makes the image more interesting.

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

They have produced a number of photographs of the items being photographed slightly similar and of the same function but in different places, these photographs when placed next to each other, in a grid like pattern, they would look very similar as they would be taken from the same angle, at approximately the same distance from the buildings.

 Their aim was to capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes so once again, They challenged the viewer to consider a subject’s place in the world and also being a record of time and change.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are key figures of typologies and have influenced many generations of documentary photographers and artists, through being the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ or the ‘Düsseldorf School’. They photographed 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.

at first their work had been more refereed as sculpture as in 1990, they received an award at the Venice Biennale not for photography, but sculpture, due to their ability to illustrate the sculptural properties of architecture. This was also because of the book they have published, their first and their most well-known body of work, photobook Anonymous Sculptures, published in 1970.

I was reading some of the critics opinions that have been stated about their work and I came across this one “They are the lines on the face of the world. The photographs are portraits of our history. And when the structures have been demolished and grassed over, as though they were never there, the pictures remain.” said by Michael Collins, in the The Long Look.

I really like how they decided to focus on these specific architectural objects, as these objects may not be the most exiting, even the photograph it’s self might not appear as one of exiting ones, however it’s the way they decided to present them that is interesting, how side by side each one compliment the other, may make the other stand out, might challenge the viewer to compare them and encourage noticing the differences between them. The objects, like stated by Michael Collins are evidence of their existence, although we might not see them anymore or see them in a different state now, the photograph keeps them alive and is that record of their existence.

She mentioned at the start their photography was labeled as documentary only, and disliked by other photographers which would call it boring and old fashioned. this is what i find very inspirational about their work, how it was so different then others and disliked but they didn’t stop and now are an influence to others.

She talk about the first major subject which was industrial plants as the area was the first in Germany to be abandoned. she stated what they wanted to achieve is to capture what was left of it before it is gone. her husband grew up there , this project was sentimental to him and was all about preserving his childhood. the idea of photographs was initially to preserve a memory, however by what they both decided to photograph they not only did that but wrote a story with those photographs. Later on in the video she said that grouping these image, presenting them side by side, it felt like making a movie. This to me is a great definition of typography, taking ordinary objects, ordinary photographs and by the presentation telling a story, adding a meaning to them, a flow which makes the images look much more interesting.

She said she learnt that the best typologies are the ones with some sort of pattern. In order to create the best typologies is to understand the subject, not romanticizing it and to simply let the subject be what its wants to be .

“it about understanding your own pleasure” she said about her work, and to me it isn’t just about photography but about any work someone decides to produce. She is a great example of when one is passionate about their work and has the courage to keep on going with what they started then the work will pay off.

There are other photographers that explored or used typologies when displaying their work. A couple being:

Here is my attempt to create a typology focused on lamps I found around my house:

What is Typology:

Typology is a single photograph or more commonly a body of photographic work, that shares a high level of consistency that is mostly based on the environment, subjects and photographic process. It was created by Bernd and Hilla Becher in Germany, 1959. When they started taking photos of buildings that had gone to ruin and had been abandoned.

Examples of Typology:

As you can see, they appear to have a deadpan style, with the camera facing the subject head on in black and white. With nothing else in the frame, it’s just the building. Sometimes other sides of the building were also taken to show more perspectives.

Bernd and Hilla Becher:

Bernd and Hilla Becher were a couple who formed a duo in photography. And also, as said earlier, were the ones who started Typology:

They described their work to be “buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style” and their motive was to “capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes”.

Their work inspired other photographers and was passed down to photographers who were from the next generation. Photographers like Ed Ruscha, Thomas Ruff and Gillian Wearing were some of these photographers who went out and took photos in relation to the Becher’s work.

Ed Ruscha:

“Every Building on the Sunset Strip”

Ed Ruscha was famous for his paintings and prints but was also well known for his work on Typology in photography. He used the deadpan style very well and wanted to capture the same theme the Bechers did. He is well known for his album named “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” which he made in Hollywood, 1966:

This 25ft folded album contained photographic views he took in the 1 and a half mile road stretch of sunset. Every two pages would capture both sides of the road to create a sort of panographic type of view.

“Twenty-six Gasoline Stations”

Ed Ruscha made his first book in 1963 and called it “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations”. As implied by the title, it contained 26 pictures of gas stations. The book is also considered to be the first modern artists book ever made and it became a precursor to modern artist book culture:

As you can see, they also fit the deadpan style with no particularly interesting features. Ed Ruscha himself said:

“I had this vision that I was being a great reporter when I did the gas stations. I drove back to Oklahoma all the time, five or six times a year. And I felt there was so much wasteland between L.A. and Oklahoma City that somebody had to bring in the news to the city…I think it’s one of the best ways of just laying down facts of what is out there. I didn’t want to be allegorical or mystical or anything like that.”

So his motive was to intentionally make the photos boring to show people that the area had exactly that level of excitement in the actual place at that time.

“Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations”

A photographer named Jeffrey Brouws made a replica of Ed Ruscha’s work in 2013, taking 26 photos of gas stations but instead being abandoned this time. the idea was to show how times have changed and that many gas stations were beginning to be abandoned, whether this was due to newer technology being made or rises in cost in order to maintain businesses wasn’t confirmed. But it also captures the same deadpan approach that Ruscha also had:

Typology originated from Bernd and Hilla Becher, who started documenting German Industrial architecture as a way of capturing what might be gone soon.

The main aim of typology was to capture a single thing. to show the thing as the thing itself, nothing else behind it. For example these images where created to show the buildings themselves, without any other outstanding things featured. Even in these images they waited for the clouds in the background to match the image as if there where using a huge white background.

Its a surprise that a docile, simple, and minimalistic image can be praised so much. Although it isn’t a surprise once you understand what’s behind the pictures. Bernd and Hilla Becher would take images of areas like coal mines, deserted places, and overall bland, and what looks to be depressing places. This also showed people the horrible conditions people live and work in, and how they have been left to rot, and even un-recognised by people. It sheds a light on something that doesn’t shed light itself.

topography aims to be consistent with what it images. Its not topography if the same concept isn’t shown throughout a project.

For example in the first image there is a consistency in the number 4, and in the other there is a consistency in face masks, but they all have different aspects given to them, weather that be colour shape size or pattern.

A photographic typology is a single photograph or more, that shares a high level of consistency. This consistency is usually found within the subjects, environment, photographic process, and presentation or direction of the subject.

The term ‘Typology’ was used to describe a style of photography when Bernd and Hilla Becher 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 – Typologies of industrial architecture

Hilla Becher was a German conceptual photographer. Becher was well known for her industrial photographs, or typologies, with her collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. For forty years, they photographed disappearing industrial architecture around Europe and North America and then won the Erasmus Prize in 2002 and Hasselblad Award in 2004.

They focus on photographing industrial structures such as water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks and factories and never included people. Their work was in a documentary style as their images were always taken in black and white.

They exhibited their work in typologies, grouping of several photographs of the same type of structures. They’re also well known for presenting their images in grid formations. 

Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha is an artist known for his paintings and prints but is also recognised for his photographic books on typologies.

Jeff Brouws

Twentynine Palms – is a photographic book by Jeff Brouws is a photo book that contains a selection of images of vintage roadside signs advertising fortune tellers and palm readers.

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Final Edits:

When I took my images for this topic, I used the flash for some of them. In these images you can see the raindrops are lit up and frozen in motion in front of the camera. The reason that you can see this only in these photos is firstly because when the flash is engaged, the camera automatically makes the shutter speed as short as possible. This is to avoid the camera from taking in too much light from the flash and overexposing the image. This makes it possible to see the raindrops as individual shapes as opposed to blurred entities because a faster shutter speed eliminates motion blurs. Secondly, the light obviously illuminates the raindrops before the camera.

Below is a comparison between one image taken with flash and the same image taken without it. These were taken seconds apart and so this demonstrates the effect of the flash on the appearance of the light.