Bernd & Hilla Becher Fotografen Photographers
"When we noticed that these sites were disappearing, we thought that they were worth preserving at least in picture and we decided to miniaturize them and take them with us. We considered it our duty and focused exclusively on that." Bernd Becher
"That these sites were vanishing wasn't the only reason. We were really fascinated by them. And nobody else was doing what we were doing. The was the thrill of the new, the adventure." Hilla Becher
Video abspielen
Documentary

The Photographers Bernd & Hilla Becher

By Marianne Kapfer

94 min, 2012, color, black & white

with Bernd Becher, Hillla Becher, Max Becher, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer, Jörg Sasse, Laurenz Berges, Matthias Koch, Götz Diergarten, Susanne Lange, Ludger Derenthal , Lothar Schirmer

Music by Rob Dietze

Blast furnaces, winding towers, preparation plants – traces of the industrial age being destroyed in many places – live on in the photographic works of Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Funded by Filmstiftung NRW

Hilla Becher

Hilla Becher (born Hilla Wobeser at 2nd September 1934 in Potsdam – died 10th October 2015 Düsseldorf) was a German conceptual photographer. She was well known for her industrial photographs, or typologies, with longtime collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. Her career spanned more than 50 years and included photographs from the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Italy.

Hilla Becher, alongside her husband, received the Erasmus Prize, the Golden Lion at Venice Biennal, the Kaiserring Goslar and the Hasselblad Award. The Bechers founded the Düsseldorf School of Photography in the mid-1970s.

 

Bernd Becher

Bernd Becher (20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007) 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.  He began working as freelance photographers for the Troost Advertising Agency in Düsseldorf, concentrating on product photography, where he met the photographer Hilla Becher. They married in 1961.In 1976, Bernd Becher started teaching photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (policy matters prevented Hilla’s simultaneous appointment), where he remained on the faculty until 1996. Before him, photography had been excluded from what was largely a school for painters. He influenced students that later made a name for themselves in the photography world. Former students of Bernd’s included Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte and Elger Esser

 

Film Team

Bernd-Hilla-Becher-Film-9954941
Marianne Kapfer
Director Producer
Bernd-Hilla-Becher-Film-9955550
Dirk Heuer
Camera
Bernd-Hilla-Becher-Film-9955559
Moritz Senarclens de Grancy
Production

Locations

Becher-Studio Kaiserswerth, Studio of Thomas Struth, Matthias Koch, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse in Düsseldorf, Studio of Candia Höfer in Cologne ... Industrial sites in France, Wales, Ruhr Area ... Erasmus Price Award in Amsterdam ... Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin ...

Camera

Shot on a 35mm Konvas camera and Panasonic DVCPro 50 camera

Postproduction

Marianne Kapfer Filmproduktion Berlin (editing), Schwarzfilm Berlin (35mm negativ), Kosmonauten Berlin

Subtitles

English, French, Chinese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Korean

Contact

  • info@becher-film.com
  • Berlin