keeping track of african and africa-related culture in the media (film, photography, television, and print)

inspirations: typology

Posted: September 25th, 2007 | Author: kamau | Filed under: museums, photography | 2 Comments »

cooling towers by bernd and hiller becher, MoMABernd and Hilla Becher’s method of teaching photography at the Staatliche Kuntsacademie in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The Bechers instructed each student to choose a plentiful subject – preferably a class of architecture, but in any case something belonging to the social rather than the natural realm. Next, adopt a uniform style of picture making … so as to minimize the contingencies of expeience and thus the obtrustiveness of the photographer’s point of view, both literally and metaphorically. Finally, make a lrage number of pictures of individual examples, which, because of the rigor of the method will constitute a typology representing the generic identity of the subject through the range of its particular incarnations.

source: Peter Galassi: “Gursky’s World” in Andreas Gursky

2 Comments on “inspirations: typology”

  1. 1 Dog training said at 6:51 PM on November 23rd, 2007:

    Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.

  2. 2 kamau said at 12:12 AM on November 29th, 2007:

    thanks for stopping by. i like the way that this method forces on to focus their way of making photos. i have been experimenting around harlem with “order of service” signs around manhattan.