In Memoriam: Hilla Becher (1934-2015)

2 minute read

Hilla Becher, half of a famed photographic duo with her husband Bernd, died on October 10, her publisher, Schirmer/Mosel has confirmed. She was 81.

Known for their typologic series on water towers, which they captured with a straightforward point of view, the Bechers believed that images that were photographed objectively were more truthful. Over 50 years, the duo produced a series of black-and-white surveys of furnaces, winding towers and abandoned buildings, all with the same uniform look. The result, often called the Becher School, influenced conceptual photographers and artists such as Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, as well as many others who studied under Bernd’s leadership at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf art academy.

“Hilla Becher was a remarkably incorruptible person,” Struth tells TIME. “I loved her uncompromising but open-minded and gentle attitude, always curious, not sentimental but loving. Her death is a big loss.”

Hilla first met Bernd, who died in 2007, in 1957 when they attended the same art school. “At the time he was not a photographer, but an artist with a brush or pencil,” she told the British Journal of Photography earlier this year. “He only used photography once in a while, because his subjects were disappearing and he wasn’t fast enough to record them. He started making photo-montages, but they were quite messy, I must say. I was a little more conceptual I think.” Hilla and Bernd began photographing together two years later, but their work only gained recognition in the early 1970s after their book, Anonyme Skulpturen, was released in the U.S.

The Bechers on Display at Paris Photo

Image:Industriebauten 1830-1930, Exposition catalogue
Industriebauten 1830-1930 Exposition catalogue, Die Neue Sammlung Munich, 1967Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Industriebauten 1830-1930, Exposition catalogue
Industriebauten 1830-1930 Exposition catalogue, Die Neue Sammlung Munich, 1967Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Industriebauten 1830-1930, catalogue
Industriebauten 1830-1930 Exposition catalogue, Die Neue Sammlung Munich, 1967Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Invitation card, Bernd und Hilla Becher Photographien
Bernd und Hilla Becher Photographien Invitation card, Ruth Nohl Gallery Siegen, Germany, 1968Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Magazine cover, Anonyme Skulpturen
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen Magazine cover for Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969 Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image:Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen, magazine
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen From the magazine Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Image: Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen, magazine
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen From the magazine Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen, magazine
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen From the magazine Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969 Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen, magazine
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen From the magazine Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969 Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen, magazine
Kunst Zeitung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen From the magazine Anonyme Skulpturen, Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Germany, January 1969 Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Bernhard + Hilla Becher bei Konrad Fischer, Invitation card
Bernhard + Hilla Becher bei Konrad Fischer Invitation card, Konrad Fischer Gallery Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Poster for the publication of Anonyme Skulpturen
Im Kurtze Erscheint Anonyme Skulpturen Poster for the publication of Anonyme Skulpturen Düsseldorf, Germany, 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image:Anonyme Skulpturen, book
Anonyme Skulpturen – Eine Typologie technischer Bauten Book cover, monograph published by Art-Press Verlag Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Anonyme Skulpturen, book
Anonyme Skulpturen – Eine Typologie technischer Bauten Book spread, Art-Press Verlag Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Anonyme Skulpturen, book
Anonyme Skulpturen – Eine Typologie technischer Bauten Book spread, Art-Press Verlag Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image:Anonyme Skulpturen, book
Anonyme Skulpturen – Eine Typologie technischer Bauten Book spread, Art-Press Verlag Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Anonyme Skulpturen, book
Anonyme Skulpturen – Eine Typologie technischer Bauten Book spread, Art-Press Verlag Düsseldorf, Germany, December 1970Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Vergleiche Techniser konstructionen, catalogue
Vergleiche techniser Konstructionen Exhibition catalogue Aix-la-chapelle, Germany, March 1971Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Vergleiche Techniser konstructionen exhibition catalogue
Vergleiche techniser Konstructionen Exhibition catalogue Aix-la-chapelle, Germany, March 1971Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Vergleiche Techniser konstructionen exhibition catalogue
Vergleiche techniser Konstructionen Exhibition catalogue Aix-la-chapelle, Germany, March 1971Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Invitation Card, Bernd + Hilla Becher
Bernd + Hilla Becher Invitation Card, Konrad Fischer Gallery Düsseldorf, Germany, 1973Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image:Invitation card, Bernd & Hilla Becher
Bernd & Hilla Becher Invitation card, Forma Gallery Genes, Italy, 1973Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Image: Bernd & Hilla Becher, Invitation card
Bernd & Hilla Becher Invitation card, Sonnabend Gallery Paris, February 1975Bernd and Hilla Becher
Image: Invitation card
Preparation Plants Invitation Card, Sonnabend Gallery New York, 1977Bernd and Hilla Becher

 

 

 

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