Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (German: [ˈbɛçɐ]; August 20, 1931 – June 22, 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (September 2, 1934 – October 10, 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures, often organised in grids. As the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ they influenced generations of documentary photographers and artists. They have been awarded the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.
Biography
Bernd Becher was born in Siegen. He studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956, then typography under Karl Rössing at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1959 to 1961. Hilla Becher was born in Potsdam. Prior to Hilla's time studying photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1958 to 1961, she had completed an apprenticeship as a photographer in her native Potsdam. Both began working as freelance photographers for the Troost Advertising Agency in Düsseldorf, concentrating on product photography.
Hilla Becher (née Wobeser; 2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) was a conceptual photographer born in Potsdam, East Germany. Becher was well known for her industrial photographs, with longtime collaborator Bernd Becher.
Life
Hilla Becher was exposed to photography early in life. Her mother attended Lette-Haus, a photography school for women, and occasionally worked in a studio, retouching photographs. Her father was a high school language teacher, later drafted to World War II. During that war the Becher family moved throughout Germany, eventually settling in Potsdam in 1945. Becher began photographing at the age of twelve with a 9×12cm plate-camera. Becher photographed her teachers in high school, printed and sold them at postcard size for the teachers. She was expelled from high school and became an intern for Walter Eichgrun, a working studio and commissioned photographer, in 1951, while studying photography at a vocational school and finishing her high school degree in Berlin. She spent several years working on commission with Eichgrun and did various solo assignments. She was offered a job, in Düsseldorf, Germany as an advertising photographer and around 1958 she enrolled into the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Walter Breker studying graphic and printing techniques. She is known to be the first student who exclusively delivered photography as work samples. While enrolled in the academy she met future husband and collaborator, Bernd Becher. In 1963 Hilla and Bernd Becher had their first solo exhibition in Galerie Ruth Nohl in Siegen, Germany.