Hilla Becher
| Hilla Becher | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Hilla Wobeser 2 September 1934 Potsdam, Germany |
| Died | 10 October 2015 (aged 81) Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | Vocational School |
| Known for | Conceptual Photography |
| Notable work | Framework Houses |
| Movement | Typographic |
| Spouse(s) | Bernd Becher |
Hilla Becher (born Hilla Wobeser; 2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) was a conceptual photographer born in Potsdam, East Germany.[1] Becher was well known for her gelatin silver prints industrial photographs, or typologies, with longtime collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. Her career spanned more than 50 years and included photographs from various countries, including the United States and France. Becher, alongside her husband, received the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award. The Bechers founded the Düsseldorf School of Photography in the mid-1970s. In 2015, she passed away from a stroke at the age of 81 years old in Düsseldorf (10 October 2015).
Becher’s mother attended Lette-Haus, a photography school for women, and occasionally worked in a studio, retouching photographs. Her father was a high school language teacher, later drafted to World War II.
Hilla Becher was exposed to photography early in life. Becher began photographing at thirteen years old with a 9×12 cm plate-camera. Becher photographed her teachers in high school. She printed and sold photographs at postcard size for the teachers. She was expelled from high school and became an intern for Walter Eichgrun, a working studio and commissioned photographer, in 1951, while studying photography at a vocational school and finishing her high school degree in Berlin. She spent several years working on commission with Eichgrun and did various solo assignments. She was offered a job in Düsseldorf, Germany as an advertising photographer and around 1958, she enrolled into the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Walter Breker studying graphic and printing techniques. She is known to be the first student who exclusively delivered photography as work samples.
In 1957, Hilla Wobeser met Bernhard Becher, known as Bernd at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where the two studied. They began a collaboration photographing the Siegerland region where Bernd was raised, and two years later, the couple got married. The Bechers traveled in a Volkswagen photographing industrial sites all over Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, then eventually, Britain and the US.
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