“It is hardly surprising that I was overcome with horror when I noticed that the
world in which I was besotted was disappearing.” –Bernd Becher

“The question ‘is this a work of art or not?’ is not very interesting for us.” –Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher were two German photographers whose systematic documentation of their country’s disappearing industrial landscape has been enormously influential for contemporary documentary photography. Inspired by the German interwar New Objectivity movement, the Bechers used rigorous, static composition to photograph their subjects with an almost scientific detachment. The serial photographic “typologies” they created were the signature of what came to be known as the Düsseldorf School, after the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf where the pair taught. Their work influenced a generation of German photographers including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, and Candida Höfer. Bernd died in 2007 and Hilla in 2015, both in Germany.