The Bechers' Industrial Lexicon: in their first full-length interview ever, Bernd and Hilla Becher talk about the collaborative project that has occupied them for more than four decades: photographing and classifying the industrial structures that are even now vanishing from the modern landscape - Interview

While "Coal Mines" was on view in Cologne, I visited the Bechers for the first time, to speak with them for the Frankfurter Rundschau, a German national daily. The Bechers were then living in a former paper mill which they had rented decades earlier and had renovated to use as their living quarters. At the end of a dead-end street, one entered a garden, beyond which lay a flat green field that marks the border between the regions of "Rhein" (business) and "Ruhr" (heavy industry). Parked in the garden was a white Volkswagen bus, dating from the `90s. This former factory was unexpectedly whimsical inside, containing a huge darkroom, a library in an elevated room, and more rooms for work and storage. Although the Bechers lived there, the place had all the coziness of a raw artist's loft. We sat down together at the kitchen table.

The Bechers proved to be an amiable couple, though each has a willful streak and a tendency to interrupt the other. They were extremely accurate in answering questions, Bernd preferring to show things rather than to explain them. I returned once to prepare for this interview and twice more to record it (on June 14 and Sept. 27, 2000). At the end of each visit the Bechers insisted that I have a good meal in one of the restaurants or pubs in the center of Kaiserwerth, once a proud little town and now a part of Dusseldorf. As the Bechers' paper mill was damp and always in danger of being flooded by the small river behind the house, they have since contracted with the authorities of Kaiserwerth to use a former school building to work and live in. began to move in late 2001. The new place will also have a semipublic showroom in which to present some of their work.

This is the first full-length interview ever granted by Bernd and Hilla Becher.

--UEZ

Ulf Erdmann Ziegler: How did you meet, and how did you arrive at your art? Bernd Becher: We met in the Troost Advertising Agency in Dusseldorf. It was 1957, I was 26.

UEZ: Had you finished your studies at the academy?

BB: No, I had just transferred from Stuttgart to Dusseldorf the same year, and worked at Troost in order to finance my studies.

UEZ: And you, too, Mrs. Becher? Hilla Becher: I already had a job in the agency, a permanent position. Initially I was very happy there, but then saw that I didn't really want to be in advertising. I asked myself what I should do and thought that the best thing would be to go back to school. So I applied to the Dusseldorf Academy of Art. I was accepted, although at the time there was no photography department at the academy. I couldn't paint. But it turned out that there were a few teachers who were interested in photography after all, and there was money available for equipment. As a student, I was given the job of buying it.

UEZ: What did you buy?

HB: A view camera and accessories.

BB: The enlarger was a Durst 13 by 18 centimeters.

HB: Very professional, 13 by 18, baths and trays and everything that went with them. Thus everyone in the class could use this equipment. At that time, conditions were difficult, renting large premises unaffordable and buying such equipment ourselves impossible. After we met and decided to work together, that was the opportunity to get started.