Blast furnaces

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Typological, repetitive, and at times oddly humorous, Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs of industrial structures create a profoundly moving cumulative effect. Their cool, objective, and obsessive images of water towers, gas tanks, grain elevators, blast furnaces, and mine heads span nearly thirty years and are captured under overcast skies with a view camera that highlights the details and textures of wood, concrete, brick, and steel. This collection serves as both a continuation and counterpoint to their earlier work, focusing on the purely functional and exposed architecture of blast furnaces, which symbolize the steel industry. These structures, akin to giant cone-shaped stoves, dominate the landscapes of cities like Pittsburgh and Birmingham, reminiscent of how religious buildings once defined medieval cityscapes. The photographs, taken between 1961 and 1989, reveal the unique characteristics and eerie presence of blast furnaces across Great Britain, Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, and the United States. The Bechers, who began their collaborative work in 1957 studying workers' houses in Germany, are part of a lineage of German photographers who shaped "objective" photography. Their work will be featured at the Dia Art Foundation galleries in New York and represent Germany at the 1990 Venice Biennale.