Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, 1979-1986

The photographic work of husband and wife team Bernd and Hilla Becher was first exhibited in the United States in the seminal exhibition New Topographics, an exhibition that has proven a touchstone for many artists of the last half of the 20th century. The straightforward approach to photographing industrial and vernacular architecture they pioneered has precursors in the work of other German photographers, particularly the work of August Sander whose project People of the Twentieth Century strove to categorize “types” of people, focusing on his homeland of Germany. The Bechers presented their large-format black-and-white photographs in grids—typologies—based on subject matter: water towers, coal mine tipples, blast furnaces, framework houses.
The Bechers directly influenced the next generation of contemporary photographers, notably Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth.

The series' photographs are as follows:
1) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Jones & Laughlin Plant, Pittsburgh, PA, 1980
2) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Jones & Laughlin Plant, Pittsburgh, PA, 1980
3) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Bethlehem Steel Co., Johnstown, PA, 1980
4) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Wheeling, Pittsburgh Steel Co., Mingo Junction, OH., 1986
5) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Arbeed, Dudelange, Luxembourg, 1983
6) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Bethlehem Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Baltimore Co., MD., 1981
7) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Jones and Laughlin Plant, Pittsburgh, PA, 1980
8)Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Arbeed Saatstahl, Volkingen, Saar, Germany, 1986
9) Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views, Arbeed, Terre Rouge, Luxembourg, 1979