A translated interview with Hilla Becher
Jul 14th, 2008 by Brad
On Jörg Colberg’s weblog about fine-art photography there is a translated interview with Hilla Becher, which, unfortunately, only appears to be available in German. He translated some of the passages that struck him…
Q: You spent your life photographing industrial memorials: Hundreds of furnaces, hundreds of water towers, hundreds of coal bunkers. Is this about being complete?
A: At the end of his life, Bernd often said: Hilla, we haven’t finished the job. And then we almost started fighting because I said: What do you think? We can’t finish our job, since it’s infinite.
Q: Was it difficult for him to accept this?
A: I think it was. He never managed to tell me what he meant by “finished”. We knew we would not be able to photograph everything. In Russia, for example, it turned out to be too difficult, we did not manage to get permission to work there.
Q: Were there family photos at the Becher’s house, for example at Christmas?
A: That didn’t exist with Bernd, but I always had a small camera on me. It was important for me, to keep memories.
for a lot more and Bernd thoughts on photography vs. sketching see: http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/2008/07/an_interview_with_hilla_becher_1.html
The original interview in German is at: http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/24539
UPDATE: a translation of the full interview is now at: http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/2008/07/of_course_we_were_freaks_an_in.html
