BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 10.5 x 11.5 in. / 244 pgs / 232 duotone.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 9/30/2013 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION Contact Publisher Catalog:
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781597112529TRADE List Price: $85.00 CAD $100.00
AVAILABILITY Not Available
The Becher’s photographic inventories have been hugely influential for several generations of photographers.
APERTURE
Bernd & Hilla Becher: Stonework and Lime Kilns
Over the course of nearly five decades, Bernd and Hilla Becher documented almost every type of industrial architecture--from water towers and steel mills to gas tanks and grain silos--in Europe and the United States. Whether presenting single shots or their signature typological grids, the Bechers created a photographic testament to the industrial revolution that so emphatically shaped the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the same time, however, they also captured a much older manufacturing tradition: the quarrying and processing of stone. This volume, an essential addition to the Bechers’ ouevre, is devoted to their photographs of rock-processing plants and lime kilns taken in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Great Britain throughout the 1980s and 90s. Each structure is unique, its details dependent upon the region and the date of its construction, and the book features buildings whose essential function is ancient but which remain important today. Although a small number of these images have been included in previous monographs, this is the first publication to showcase a comprehensive collection of the Bechers’ study of stonework and lime kilns. Bernd Becher (1931–2007) and Hilla Becher (born 1934) met at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and first collaborated in 1959. Starting in the late 1960s, their work gained worldwide visibility via prominent exhibitions such as Documenta, Kassel, Germany; the Bienal de São Paulo; and the Venice Biennale. The Bechers’ work is represented in major collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Gallery, London, and they have received numerous awards, among them the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award. The Bechers were influential professors at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, training a generation of photographers now known collectively as the Düsseldorf School. Over a dozen monographs of their work have been published.
Featured image is reproduced from Bernd & Hilla Becher: Stonework and Lime Kilns.
STAFF REVIEW
Like Charles and Ray Eames, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and Gilbert and George, the dynamic husband-and-wife team of Bernd and Hilla Becher have collaborated for nearly 50 years, photographing the industrial architecture of Western Europe. From their first series of photographs of water towers, the artists have not veered from creating black-and-white architectural portraits. Their subjects are akin to what you'd find in our rust belt-grain silos, gas tanks, steel mills. They are Europe's New Topographic reigning masters and founders of the Düsseldorf school. Every Becher image is rendered with absolute machine-like precision; each one features a structure centered against grey skies (it's never summer in a Becher photo). Their consistent style carries over to their books. Every Becher book is formatted exactly the same-same trim, same white glossy jacket with their industrial image in the center, same font, same publisher, and same German publisher--Schirmer/Mosel--and, of course, the same subject. And same high quality reproductions--so high, in fact, that many people cut up the images from the book and frame them in a Becher-like grid. Not only is this is a new Becher monograph, it's the first Becher book to appear on Aperture's list (all previous Becher monographs had been published in North America by MIT Press). --Jane Brown
FORMAT: Hbk, 10.5 x 11.5 in. / 244 pgs / 232 duotone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $100 ISBN: 9781597112529 PUBLISHER: Aperture AVAILABLE: 9/30/2013 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not Available
Over the course of nearly five decades, Bernd and Hilla Becher documented almost every type of industrial architecture--from water towers and steel mills to gas tanks and grain silos--in Europe and the United States. Whether presenting single shots or their signature typological grids, the Bechers created a photographic testament to the industrial revolution that so emphatically shaped the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the same time, however, they also captured a much older manufacturing tradition: the quarrying and processing of stone. This volume, an essential addition to the Bechers’ ouevre, is devoted to their photographs of rock-processing plants and lime kilns taken in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Great Britain throughout the 1980s and 90s. Each structure is unique, its details dependent upon the region and the date of its construction, and the book features buildings whose essential function is ancient but which remain important today. Although a small number of these images have been included in previous monographs, this is the first publication to showcase a comprehensive collection of the Bechers’ study of stonework and lime kilns.
Bernd Becher (1931–2007) and Hilla Becher (born 1934) met at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and first collaborated in 1959. Starting in the late 1960s, their work gained worldwide visibility via prominent exhibitions such as Documenta, Kassel, Germany; the Bienal de São Paulo; and the Venice Biennale. The Bechers’ work is represented in major collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Gallery, London, and they have received numerous awards, among them the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award. The Bechers were influential professors at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, training a generation of photographers now known collectively as the Düsseldorf School. Over a dozen monographs of their work have been published.
