A Typology is a set of images made with a common subject or idea in mind, repeated through out the set. This can include for example, photographing every window in a 10 mile radius, maybe photographing every food imported from Africa on a supermarket shelf or maybe a leaf from every type of leaf near your area
Questions to consider in relation to the Bechers and their concept of Typology:
1. How did they first meet?
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.
2. What inspired them to begin to record images of Germany’s industrial landscape?
The first area they went to was a area in Germany and the reason they focused on this landscape was because they wanted to preserves the architecture of this landscape as the buildings and industrial sites were getting demolished and they wanted to capture it. They used a last forming camera meaning you can only take one picture at a time
3. How did the Bechers explain the concept of Typology?
Waited for the right light so the sky had this plain where backdrop so they could focus of the industrial buildings.
4. Which artists/ photographers inspired them to produce typology images?
Karl Blossfeldt inspired they and she spoken about his work multiple times. He was an art teacher in school in Germany and he dried plants and take a photo with his camera for his students to draw from.They wanted to be as close to realistic as they could with no romantism involved and focused on realism.
5. What is the legacy of the Bechers and their work?
They were often labelled as conceptual artists and influenced minimalist and conceptual artists like Ed Ruscha, Carl Andre and Douglas Huebler.
As professors of The Dusseldorf School of Photography, they influenced a generation of German photographers who were their students (including Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth.)
