Bernd Becher
1931–2007
Introduction
Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (German: [ˈbɛçɐ]; 20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures, often organised in grids. As the founders of what has come to be known as the 'Becher school' or the Düsseldorf School of Photography, they influenced generations of documentary photographers and artists in Germany and abroad. They were awarded the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed July 16, 2026.
Introduction
Born 20 August 1931. Becher worked as a painter and decorator in Seigen, Germany from 1947 to 1950. From 1953 to 1956, Becher studied painting and lithography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie, Stuttgart, Germany. Becher studied typography at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, from 1957 to 1961. In 1959 Becher began to work with Hilla Wobeser in Düsseldorf, Germany as freelance artistic and industrial photographers. In 1961 the Bechers married and began to develop a project of documentary photography of industrial constructions in the Netherlands. In 1974-1975 and 1977-1978, the Bechers photographed in Pennsylvania, United States. Since 1976, Bernd Becher has been a professor of photography at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf.
Country of birth
Austria
Roles
Artist, architect, conceptual artist, graphic artist, lecturer, lithographer, painter, photographer, teacher, typographer
ULAN identifier
500027822
Names
Bernd Becher
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed July 16, 2026.
