Hilla and Bernd Becher were photographers who captured sets of matching black and white photos of related industrial objects.
 |
| Water Towers by Hilla and Bernd Becher |
They needed overcast days to do their work, because the forms were always lit by indirect light.
 |
| Blast Furnaces by Hilla and Bernd Becker |
They worked as a team, traveling around Europe and North America documenting the disappearing industrial architecture and arranging them in typologies reminiscent of natural history collections.
 |
| Water Towers by Hilla and Bernd Becher |
They were attracted by the unintentional sculptural beauty of these forms. Bringing the images together invited viewers to compare and contrast. They said: "We photographed water towers and furnaces because they are honest. They are functional, and they reflect what they do - that is what we liked."
-----
Looks like photographing those blast furnaces was an adventure and a half. Look at what the photographer has to be standing on to get those shots!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. Water towers are always worth a look.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the photographs in this blog post, I anticipated a post about something chess related. The top set of water towers remind me of Bishops and Kings / Queens. The bottom set of water towers remind me of Rooks. Anybody else see that?
ReplyDeleteThe rhythms are so enjoyable and oddly tranquil.
ReplyDeleteTHanks a lot for making me discover these artists, I am quite fascinated by their work since it is pretty close to my pencil work process. Do you own any of their books, if so would you recommend one in particular (I found out they worked on industrial buildings mostly but also on framework houses) ?
ReplyDelete