Bernd Becher (1931 – 2007)
Siegen. Bernd Becher was born August 20, 1931, in Siegen. With their black and white photograps of industrial buildings in the Ruhr area, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA and Great Britain, as well as water towers, glass containers and half-timbered houses in the Siegerland region, Becher and his wife Hilla Becher gained international renown with their unmistakable style. The Duesseldorf School of Photography was founded by them.
From 1953 to 1956 Bernd Becher studied at the State Academy of Fine Art in Stuttgart and from 1959 to 1961 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy of Typography. From 1957 he made photographs that were used for documentation and as a template for drawings and paintings of industrial monuments of interests. He collected contact sheets of industrial buildings. He and his wife came to the purely photographic documentation through collages of drawings and photographs. Apart from their documentation of Siegen half-timbered buildings, the couple Becher always saw the representation of the industrial production facilities and industrial acceptance tests that were related to the production of goods. Their own works are mostly about the transaction, consequently several photographs which show the different buildings from different angles. The couple define themselves as archaeologists of industrial architecture, since they shaped the term for industrial architecture, the "normadic architecture". That term means the establishment and also the demolition of industrial wastes due to capital utilization and profit making. Her photographic work was seen and appreciated artistically relatively quickly, confirmed as a series concept in the sense of New Objectivity and from the perspective of the visual arts of conceptual art assigned.
1972, Bernd Becher got a professorship for photography and education at the Duesseldorf Art Academy and educated, closely with Hilla Becher, a large number of photographic personalities.
Bernd Becher died on June 22, 2007 in a hospital in Rostock. Since the death of her husband, Hella Becher has continued her photographic work with new works.
Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (born August 20, 1931 in Siegen, † June 22, 2007 in Rostock). In 1976 he took over a professorship for photography at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.