Bernd & Hilla Becher: Water Towers

Using a precisely positioned large format view camera and working on overcast days, the Bechers created photographs with the uniform, neutral appearance of architectural renderings or scientific records, transforming their subjects into what they called “anonymous sculpture.”

Black and white photograph of a water tower

Black and white photograph of a water tower amongst residential homes

Black and white photograph of a water tower in a grass field near electrical power lines

Black and white photograph of a water tower in a grass field

Black and white photograph of a water tower near a railroad track and residential homes

Black and white photograph of a circular water tower near railroad tracks

Black and white photograph of a water tower near electrical power lines

A black and white photograph of a large water tower with the word FINDLAY painted on the facade

Black and white photograph of a water tower exterior

Black and white photograph of a water tower amongst railroad tracks

Black and white photograph of a water tower among residential homes with larger city on the horizon

Black and white photograph of a water tower near railroad tracks

Black and white photograph of a water tower made partially of bricks

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Bernd & Hilla Becher: Water Towers

Bernd & Hilla Becher, Water Tower, Crailsheim, Germany, 1980

gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches (sheet)

Bernd & Hilla BecherWater Tower, Weirton, West Virginia, U.S.A.

1980

gelatin silver print, 24 x 20-1/2 inches (sheet) [61.0 x 52.1 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherWater Tower, Wauseon, Ohio, U.S.A.

1977

gelatin silver print, 24 x 20-1/2 inches (sheet) [61.0 x 52.1 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherWater Tower, Circle City, New Jersey, U.S.A.

1974

gelatin silver print, 23-7/8 x 20-1/4 inches (sheet) [60.6 x 51.4 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherWater Tower, Gary, Indiana, U.S.A.

1977

gelatin silver print, 24-1/2 x 20 inches (sheet) [62.2 x 50.8 cm]

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Related Portfolios

Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologies

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Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologies

The artists’ most immediately recognizable work, the typologies group several photographs of a single category of industrial structure, such as cooling towers or blast furnaces. Presented together in a grid, subtle variations emerge among these homogeneous structures.

Grid of six framed black and white photographs of blast furnaces — Blast Furnaces, Perspective View, 1979-86

six gelatin silver prints, 22-1/4 x 18 inches (each framed) [56.5 x 45.7 cm]

Grid of six framed black and white photographs of water towers — Water Towers [Wassertürme] 1963-1972, 2010

six gelatin silver prints, 18 x 22 inches (each framed) [45.7 x 55.9 cm]

Four framed black and white photographs showing a factory building from various angles. — Blast Furnaces, Volklingen, Saar District, 1986

four gelatin silver prints, 36 x 123 inches (overall installed) [91.4 x 312.4 cm]

Two black and white photographs of water towers in a single frame — Wassertürme [Water Tower], 1973

two gelatin silver prints, 25-3/4 x 34-3/4 inches (framed) [65.5 x 88 cm]

Bernd & Hilla BecherBlast Furnaces, Perspective View

1979-86

six gelatin silver prints, 22-1/4 x 18 inches (each framed) [56.5 x 45.7 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherWater Towers [Wassertürme] 1963-1972

2010

six gelatin silver prints, 18 x 22 inches (each framed) [45.7 x 55.9 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherBlast Furnaces, Volklingen, Saar District

1986

four gelatin silver prints, 36 x 123 inches (overall installed) [91.4 x 312.4 cm]

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Bernd & Hilla BecherWassertürme [Water Tower]

1973

two gelatin silver prints, 25-3/4 x 34-3/4 inches (framed) [65.5 x 88 cm]

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Black and white photograph of a house facade

Bernd & Hilla Becher: Architecture

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Bernd & Hilla Becher: Architecture

The domestic buildings and industrial structures, uniformly composed within the frame, are presented as studies of utilitarian sculpture. As Hilla Becher has said of the couple’s architectural subjects, “They are functional, and they reflect what they do.”