Lot 143 N

Subjects:

1. Lime kiln, c. 1920, near Manbenge, Northern France, 1963
2. Winding tower, c. 1910, "Blaenserchan" Colliery, Pontypool, South Wales, 1966
3. Water tower, Liège, 1968
4. Cooling tower, c. 1950, "Victoria Mathias" colliery, Essen, Ruhr area, 1963
5. Silo and mixing plant of a construction site, Essen, Ruhr area 1965
6. Refinery, Lorraine, 1967
7. Gas container, c. 1880, London-Finchley, 1966
8. Gas container, 1959, Wuppertal, 1963
9. Container for charcoal, c. 1920, coking plant "Eschweiler Reserve", near Aachen, 1965
10. Winding tower, 1920, Fosse "Dutemple", Valenciennes, Northern France, 1967


The ten photographs showing industrial buildings are from the edition published by the Städtische Museum Mönchengladbach on the occasion of the exhibition 'industriebauten, eine fotografische dokumentation von b. u. h. becher' [industrial buildings, a photographic documentary by b. u. h. becher] in 1968. At that time, the museum had no idea of the significance the artist couple would have for the development of photography and its establishment as a constant in the international art world. With their typological approach, the Bechers were not only founders of the 'Düsseldorfer Photoschule' [Düsseldorf School of Photography), but also role models for an entire generation of international artists and photographers working conceptionally.
The photographs, taken with a 13 x 18 cm plate-back camera, show the Bechers' characteristic, objective, documentary view of the object. By choosing a raised, distanced location, allowing the entire building to be captured photographically and centred in the image, the photographs are based on a uniform formal structure. Nevertheless, despite any de-subjectification of the objects, the precision of the image capture always brings to light small peculiarities and details that make each photograph an individual portrait of the building shown. When considering the entirety of the photographs presented here, the impression of a certain shared family identity is created, which is not only due to the fact that the buildings share the fate of industrial culture in decline, but is also the result of Bernd and Hilla Becher's craftsmanship as photographers on location and in the darkroom.

According to Hilla Becher the originally planned edition of 55 was not entirely realised at the time.
We would like to thank Gabriele Conrath-Scholl (Die Photographische Sammlung/SK-Stiftung Kultur, Cologne) for helpful information.