Hilla and Bernd Becher :

[MattKing]

AA's involvement with the Sierra Club was as purposive as the work of the Bechers'.

Photography is a big tent, and there is room for all sorts of different players of roles. Some will appear more to the general populace than others.

 

[AgX]

Nonetheless I see at Photrio typically a certain idea about what artistic photography is, a view that I rather relate to fine-arts photography (until very recently a unheard term in Germany).

These fellows would have been shocked lately at a visit at that artistic photography class in Düsseldorf. Just by the lacking of photographs, even photography.

But as you indicated, it is a wide field and we all find our corns...

 

[jtk]

AA's involvement with the Sierra Club was as purposive as the work of the Bechers'.

Photography is a big tent, and there is room for all sorts of different players of roles. Some will appear more to the general populace than others.

I'm very familiar with AA's work, having handled many of his original prints in the former headquarters of Sierra Club in San Francisco (circa 1968). It was of course beautiful but I lost interest when I discovered Edward Weston, who added something about sex to the soup.

I don't think "photography" is any sort of "tent" at all, and I do think it rarely has anything to do with ART.

The "general populace" is addressed almost entirely by smartphones and advertising.

 

[Vaughn]

I find that true teachers, such as AA and the Bechers, tend to be remembered well. Perhaps because teachers have a natural bias towards teaching about teachers?

 

[jtk]

I find that true teachers, such as AA and the Bechers, tend to be remembered well. Perhaps because teachers have a natural bias towards teaching about teachers?

That's an interesting thought. It relates especially to Minor White, his methods and his students (many of whom went on to teach photography). That in turn relates directly to Zen and Gurdjieff, the practices/concerns of many of Minor's photo students. Gurdjieff and Zen practices are often obsessive about "true teachers".

 

[MattKing]

People who at least want to teach tend to gravitate to photographic communities - both real life and virtual. Photography can be a really lonely and insular pursuit. The connection with a community can make it much more well rounded and satisfying, even if the result can sometimes be work that is more accessible, and therefore less remarkable.

 

[Vaughn]

That's an interesting thought. It relates especially to Minor White, his methods and his students (many of whom went on to teach photography). That in turn relates directly to Zen and Gurdjieff, the practices/concerns of many of Minor's photo students. Gurdjieff and Zen practices are often obsessive about "true teachers".

I did not mean to get too grandiose with the word 'true'...but to me it means a teacher involved and excited about the subject taught and can transfer that intensity/excitement to the students and have them, not copy, but surpass the teacher (which might be decades after the teacher's retirement or death).

 

[jtk]

I did not mean to get too grandiose with the word 'true'...but to me it means a teacher involved and excited about the subject taught and can transfer that intensity/excitement to the students and have them, not copy, but surpass the teacher (which might be decades after the teacher's retirement or death).

The "intensity" may be independent of "excitement" (hence Zen, which almost by definition isn't "excitied") and I can't agree that "surpass the teacher" fits...

I think (only me) that "surpass the teacher" may be a matter of personal wiring rather than of what was "taught". I know I learned a lot third-hand from Minor but my work is only remotely like something he personally might have taught.

Good discussion.

 

[CMoore]

Wow x2..!!!
Not sure when i enjoyed a thread as much as this one. Thanks to all.
At the risk of repeating....... i REALLY dig Industrial Photography and so i really like what these two took on.
I am sort of surprised there was this much heavy industry left for them to photo.
Most of those sight were SO Heavily Bombed during the war, it is great luck they still had this many places, in Germany, that was available to them.
The 10 minute video i watched was great

 

[reddesert]

In May 2008, there was a remarkable interview with Hilla Becher in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Unfortunately, the interview is only available in German - googletranslate should help here.
Ms. Becher speaks here - shortly after the death of her husband - about new projects, which she still wanted to realize.
Furthermore she talks about the way of working, which she established together with her husband Bernd.
It is also interesting to note that Bernd was actually not interested in photography.

Hilla Becher - Sure, we were freaks ... https://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/kunst/klar-waren-wir-freaks-75418

Great interview, thanks for posting it. Google translate does reasonably well (with a couple of obvious minor failures).

Just for myself, I grew up in an industrial area of Pennsylvania as it was entering full decline, but with heavy industry still visible even from the road. When some time later I first saw the Bechers' photos of towers in the photography galleries of a museum, I had a current of recognition - "Yes, of course!" to this project.

 

[AgX]

I am sort of surprised there was this much heavy industry left for them to photo.
Most of those sight were SO Heavily Bombed during the war, it is great luck they still had this many places, in Germany, that was available to them.

Germany and Europe had been mostly rebuilt by the time they started their work. Furthermore a shaft tower itself is not that easy to destroy from the air. Mines in general were not that severly hit.
And unless there had been found a succeeding (industrial) use for real estate bearing superfluous industry, as with the shrinking mining industry, the buildings typically were left as they are. Today only few shaft towers are still standing, as monuments.

 

[Arthurwg]

I don't think "photography" is any sort of "tent" at all, and I do think it rarely has anything to do with ART.

The "art" is the "idea."

 

[logan2z]

 

[warden]

The NYT reviewer did a good job of introducing laypeople to tilt/shift in this review.

Photography’s Delightful Obsessives

The Met surveys Bernd and Hilla Becher, who turned Machine Age monuments into alluring collectibles.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Arthurwg]

Wow! Great review. Thanks for posting.

 

[jtk]

The "art" is the "idea."

A photographic print is a stimulant...not a mere "idea".

If you look at anything you may see something. From that you may form an "idea"...or you may not.

 

[Pieter12]

I don't think "photography" is any sort of "tent" at all, and I do think it rarely has anything to do with ART.

A photographic print is a stimulant...not a mere "idea".

If you look at anything you may see something. From that you may form an "idea"...or you may not.

Not to get into the "is photography art" debate again, but how does a painting, lithograph or sculpture (citing just some plastic arts) differ from your statement about a photographic print?

 

[Highlyanimated]

Thank you for sharing, wasn't aware of their work prior to this.

 

[Don_ih]

Not to get into the "is photography art" debate again, but how does a painting, lithograph or sculpture (citing just some plastic arts) differ from your statement about a photographic print?

I think @jtk was saying that most photographs are not taken as art or to express anything whatsoever. If a photo is taken as a record, it can still be seen as art or used as art. But most never are.
Just like you can write a grocery list or a novel.
Just like you can paint a wall or paint a mural.
Just like you can sculpt a bust or bust a sculpture....

 

[Sirius Glass]

I think @jtk was saying that most photographs are not taken as art or to express anything whatsoever. If a photo is taken as a record, it can still be seen as art or used as art. But most never are.
Just like you can write a grocery list or a novel.
Just like you can paint a wall or paint a mural.
Just like you can sculpt a bust or bust a sculpture....

And if a thread should be opened on these statements, the thread would go on for pages, no agreements on the different views and nothing would be decided. And another thread would just take up space that has to be maintained by @Sean and company.

 

[Arthurwg]

A photographic print is a stimulant...not a mere "idea".

If you look at anything you may see something. From that you may form an "idea"...or you may not.

The "idea" in "conceptual art" is the "art" I'm talking about. Without it, the picture is a "mere" photograph, of which there are many.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Went on Wednesday. One of the most extraordinary photo exhibition I've ever seen, with the Cartier-Bresson retrospective at the MoMA a few years back.

 

[logan2z]

Went on Wednesday. One of the most extraordinary photo exhibition I've ever seen, with the Cartier-Bresson retrospective at the MoMA a few years back.

Jealous

Hoping to see it when it travels to SFMoMa next.

 

[jtk]

Dia Art Foundation

Dia Art Foundation is a contemporary arts organization with locations in Beacon, New York, and the American West.

diaart.org

This is the show I saw, back in ancient times. Knowing Dia Beacon has a conceptual art focus, I brought that frame of reference with me. Dia Beacon is a gigantic gallery.... has always done deep dives with only a few artists at a time...no group shows

On the same very long day I also saw fifty or more Andy Warhol paintings there. I should have camped somewhere near Dia in order to spend sufficient time with the three artists it was exhibiting.

 

[jtk]

An example of the kind of work Dia exhibits. Might be hard for me to appreciate, just as Bernd and Hilla are hard for some people who might prefer more conventional work. I would have had a hard time with this, if I'd traveled to Dia, somehow expecting a "normal" kind of gallery.

Dia | Program | Walter De Maria

Dia Art Foundation is a contemporary arts organization with locations in Beacon, New York, and the American West.

diaart.org