What are typologies?
Typologies are a body of photographs ( more than one or two ) that share a high level of consistency, so they are often placed next to each other to create a series of similar looking images. And grouping them together based on similar characteristics, often showing repetition and patterns. Typologies can be used to explore how small variations within a group can create meaning or convey information about the subject.
The Bechers
images by Bernd and Hilla Becher
Bernd and Hilla Becher started photographing together in 1959. Most of their work included architecture and had extensive images on water towers, blast furnaces, coal mine tipples, industrial facades and many other industrial architecture pieces.
1. How did they first meet?
Their first meeting was as students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957.
2. What inspired them to begin to record images of Germany’s industrial landscape?
the first area they went to was this area in Germany and it was an area that was going to be demolished and they wanted to preserve and record it for prosperity. – large format film camera technology a lot slower than digital camera ( same as ansel adams)
3. How did the Bechers explain the concept of Typology?
Hilla Becher came up with the concept when she was looking at biology and psychology books on of the people she looked at in particular was Karl Blossfeldt where they showed comparing plants to others and they decided to do that with buildings organising the buildings they were photographing into different patterns which helped them decide on how to make those grids. They would have to wait until the light matched the light in the other images they had to wait for over cast days so that they’re only focusing on the subject of the image rather than the background so the background wouldn’t blend in with the tone of the building. ( white background vs dark building) opposed to romanticism ( realism )
4. Which artists/ photographers inspired them to produce typology images?
Karl Blossfeldt he produced images of flowers and plants and would put them next to each other to compare the plants to each other for his biology students this helped inspired the Bechers to create typologies. August Sander was also an influence.
5. What is the legacy of the Bechers and their work?
why taught at a university which produced many famous photographers who were inspired by being taught by the Bechers and became photographers themselves such as Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Demand who are all typologists.
Photoshoot plan
There is a few (38) of the German bunkers by my house so I’m going go down there and take pictures of the bunkers form many different angles to try a replicate how typologyies were taken.
photoshoot
My Own Typologies // edited images
How I made these typologies is that I edited all the images that I wanted to use and opened up an untitled document for a blank canvas to be able to create the boarders and and line the images up with each other. To get all the images into the same untitled document I went in file-open and selected the images that I wanted to use for this typology as shown in the screen shot below and then I dragged the images into the untitled document and held CTRL T to be able to resize the images how I wanted.
