Hilla Becher
1934–2015
Introduction
Hilla Becher (née Wobeser; 2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015) was a German conceptual photographer. Becher was well known for her industrial photographs, or typologies, with longtime collaborator and husband, Bernd Becher. Her career spanned more than 50 years and included photographs from the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Italy.
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 died from a stroke at age 81, in Düsseldorf.
Wikidata identifier
Q16947611
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 14, 2025.
Introduction
Born 2 September 1934. In the early 1950s, Becher trained as a photographer in Potsdam, Germany. She also worked as a commercial photographer in Hamburg, Germany. In 1957 Becher settled in Düsseldorf, Germany. From 1958 to 1961, she studied and organized a photography section at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf. In 1959, Hilla Wobeser began working with Bernd Becher in Düsseldorf as artistic and industrial photographers. In 1961 the Bechers married and began to develop a project of diocumentary photography of industrial constructions in the Netherlands. In 1974-1975 and in 1977-1978, the Bechers photographed in Pennsylvania, United States. Hilla Becher was a professor of photography at the Staatlichen Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf.
Country of birth
Germany
Roles
Artist, architect, conceptual artist, lecturer, painter, photographer, teacher
ULAN identifier
500116108
Names
Hilla Becher, Hilda Becher, Hilde Becher, Hilla Wobeser Becher, Hilla Wobeser
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 14, 2025.
