Cooling Tower
- 2002
-
photograph
-
black and white photograph
-
30 in. x 24.68 in. (76.2 cm x 62.67 cm)
-
Purchased with funds from the Student Center Preview Program
Husband and wife team Bernd and Hilla Becher began making photographs together in 1957 while working at the Troost Advertising Agency in Dusseldorf, where Bernd supported his studies in typography. Hilla soon enrolled at the Kunstakademie as well, and became the first student in the academy’s photography program. The two married in 1961. The couple began working as freelance industrial photographers, making portraits of Western industrial structures like water towers, winding towers, gas tanks, and blast furnaces. These photographs, shot from a high vantage point under diffused, overcast light, were meant to be true records of the objects themselves, rather than interpretations of them. Recalling mid-19th century documentative photographers, the Bechers have used large-format cameras and fine grain film to capture intricate detail. Cooling Tower, 2002 is a prime example of Bernd and Hilla Becher's work. It is an image that attempts to be neutral and unqualified by subjective interpretation. The work is intended to be timeless and practical, a record of an ever-changing industrial landscape. However, this piece is atypical of the Bechers' work in that it is a single image; beginning in the 1960s, the couple began exhibiting groups of images together, as single works of art. Grouped together by typological similarities, the images together represented typologies rather than separate photographs. The images were usually shown in grids or rows to highlight typological similarities. From 1976-1996, Bernd Becher served as professor of photography at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. He and his wife influenced a whole school of photography in Germany, which is often referred to as the Objective School. Subscribers to this philosophy of photography have adhered to the notion that photography can be an unmediating, non-interpretive craft, and they infuse their images with absolute clarity. Luminaries in this group include Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Candida Hoffer, Thomas Ruff, and Axel Hutte.
