PHOTOAUTOMAT

Bernd & Hilla Becher aka the modern typologists.
 

Collectors of dying architectural structures Bernd and Hilla Becher, a husband and wife German artist duo, spent over 50 years  photographing architectural structures of the industrial era. A project that started out of nostalgia as a way to preserve this "things", later became this huge body of work. 

They started taking a very large amount of photos using a 6x9 Linhof camera. After that they organize them putting an image next to another and that's how the typologies were born. Noting differences and similarities between each structure they were able to create harmonic pieces of 9, 12 or 15 images. And so, they started collecting their industrial structures as a biologist would collect butterflies or bugs.

The Bechers did not rush for any photo leaving nothing to chance. They took everything in consideration for each image, centered compositions for simple objects, using the horizon 3/4 of the space in the image. 

They waited for the perfect weather conditions; cloudy/foggy days so the background of the structure wouldn't get in the frame, little vegetation, apertures of 32 or 45 so the exposure was usually around 20 seconds, "is a lovely moment counting to 20 we are very concentrated and oblivious to everyone"

​ Bernd Becher said on an interview.

Bernd and Hilla Becher's work is fundamental for modern photography. They taught at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Dusseldorf Art Academy) were influencing photographers like Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth and Thomas Ruff,  were their students. They also created the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

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The PhotoAutomat section is curated by the Brooklyn-based photographer Andreína Restrepo.