Typology

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

Typology is a single photograph or more commonly a body of photographic work, 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

who is Bernd and Hilla?

Bernhard “Bernd” Becher (20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007) and Hilla Becher (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) were German conceptual artists and photographer working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings, architecture, structures including water towers, coal bunkers, gas towers and factories around Europe and North America and are well known for putting their images in grids, this was to highlight the formal similarities of each structure. They have been awarded the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award. They have been collaborating together as a duo since 1959 after meeting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957.

The common themes they used was overlooked beauty and the relationship between form and function. Both subjects addressed the effect of industry on economy and the environment.