Hilla Becher, via Artforum
Hilla Becher, the influential German photographer who, alongside her husband Bernd, worked as a pioneer in the field of contemporary art photography, has passed away at the age of 81. Â
Working in the era after WWII, the Becher’s were instrumental in formulating new styles of photographic production, producing stark black and white photographs exploring the architectural structures of factories, water towers, abandoned sites and industrial compounds.  Becher was also an accomplished professor, and won the 2002 Erasmus Prize for her contributions as a teacher at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.  Her work, alongside that of her husband, was instrumental in the development of German contemporary photography, with considerable impact on the work of artists Thomas Ruff,  Andreas Gursky, and Thomas Struth, among others.
The artists’ work is held in the collections of some of the most renowned museums worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Read more at Artforum
