Framework Houses of the Siegen Industrial Region
Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1977. 1st Edition. Quarto, publisher's ivory paper-covered boards, spine stamped in black, original photo-illustrated dust jacket.
First edition, presentation copy, of industrial-architectural photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher’s early book, inscribed by them to documentary filmmaker Michael Blackwood and his wife, art advisor Nancy Rosen. Bernd, a painter, and Hilla, a commercial photographer, met as students in 1957, inaugurating a lifelong photographic collaboration. They set about to capture architectural subjects as biological specimens in the style of plant photographer Karl Blossfeldt, arranging their photos into grids and analyzing variations of form through these typologies. In the process they developed a completely novel genre of photography. Their highly standardized, objective style continued unaltered until Bernd’s death in 2007. This landmark photobook documents an obsolete style of vernacular industrial housing built from timber in the late 19th-early 20th centuries in the Siegen district of Germany, one of Europe's oldest and most significant iron producing regions and where Bernd grew up. Illustrated with black-and-white plates; with an index. Text in English. Inscribed in pencil to the front endpaper: "For Nancy and Michael / from Bernd and Hilla / May 1978." Michael Blackwood directed and produced an acclaimed art documentary film chronicling the forty-year career of the Bechers in 2006. Light toning and soiling to boards; unclipped dust jacket with shallow chipping to spine-ends, some toning, edgewear, and a few small closed tears. Very good. Item #12974
$1,500.00