Bernd and Hilla (Wobeser) Becher: barns, water towers, storage silos, and warehouses
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wouldn’t life be simple if I were only interested in music. Then I could present a unified front, and never doubt what and where I am. Like all those folks in the music business. They all seem so… focussed. I have been in love with photography ever since I bought a camera from a friend for $20 in 7th grade. It was the one thing besides music that kept me out of trouble in those confusing adolescent years. It was certainly a way of hiding behind something, and also giving reason for those long walks in the woods, or a secret bus ride into Manhattan during the school day (I walked 42 St and took pictures of busy people, sprawling drunks, halloween storefronts). I spent hours in the darkroom, and once skipped an entire week of HS to be in the darkroom (my father found me out – I left my open journal on the table). I attented a photo class at the local university where Joel Meyerowitz and Emmet Gowin were teaching . They let me in their class, I was passionate, I was 17. They saw that. I don’t remember being amazed that they let me in. I must have been. Wow. But I worked hard and joined all the discussions.
Anyway, I’ve been looking through the last 9 years of photographs (since I went digital), and wondering, WTF? I am still doing this. For 37 years I am doing this.
So, I just want to say, from here on in, there’s going to be photographs, and the usual music thoughts and updates.
Up at the top, one of my favorite photographers, the Bechers. See their portfolio, beautifully presented here:
http://photography-now.net/bernd_and_hilla_becher/portfolio1.html
I am struck by the thought that while the subjects are industrial, metal, manmade, riveted, hard, cold… they are organic and alive in shape. An underlying beauty in industrial shapes. Now I won’t start to think about the latest – not so latest trend in industrial shape, the metal corrugated box building. Will we find beauty in that in 100 years?
The Bechers were also influential in that they collected and eventually displayed their photographs in a grid form, inviting comparison of form and shape. Who is it among my friends that has a poster on her wall, a grid of colorful outhouses? Becher influenced.


