Bernd and Hilla Becher

German

1959, Germany, Europe
2007

German photographer Hilla Becher discusses her interest in capturing the changing industrial landscape on film, a project she, with and her husband and collaborator, Bernd, began in 1959. Their seemingly straightforward black-and-white pictures of water towers, coal tipples, gas holders, and other structures are in fact products of the Bechers’ radical, decades-long careers at the intersection of documentary photography, design, and Conceptual art.

This video was made shortly before her passing in 2015.

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