Robert Smithson / Bernd & Hilla Becher: Field Trips [Hardcover]

James Lingwood (Author), Hilla Becher (Photographer), Bernd Becher (Photographer), Robert Smithson (Author), Vicente TodolI (Contributor), Hilla (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2002

In December 1968, the American artist Robert Smithson embarked on a field trip to the huge industrial complex in the Ruhr district of Germany. His local guides were the Dsseldorf-based artist duo of Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Konrad Fischer, in whose Dsseldorf gallery Smithson was scheduled to exhibit. The Bechers had begun their own project of photographing the vernacular industrial architecture of Northern Europe in the early 1960s, and had already spent several months photographing at Oberhausen as well as at adjacent industrial sites. The different series of photographs made by Smithson and the Bechers of the same site foreground their respective preoccupations with the industrial landscape and the process of production and entropy, with systems and their inevitable dissolution. Their contrasting bodies of work embody alternate perspectives on time: the Bechers' sense of historical time and Smithson's of the geological. Though formally divergent, each artist's work comprises a radical rethinking of classical notions of beauty and landscape. Neither the Bechers' typologies nor Smithson's projects were possible without prospecting in neglected parts of the landscape, whose distressed state refuted the relationship between history and progress.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Hopefulmonster (November 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8877571462
• ISBN-13: 978-8877571465
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,603,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not All That It Appears, October 30, 2007

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This review is from: Robert Smithson / Bernd & Hilla Becher: Field Trips (Hardcover)

I bought this book because I'm a fan of the black and white industrial photography of Bernd & Hilla Becher. The product details say the book is in English, but it turns out that 90% of the text is in Italian or Portuguese. This was very disappointing since there is a lot of text and I was hoping to learn more about the sites photographed by the Bechers and Smithson. The book is small compared to the typical oversized Becher books, and many of the photos are spread across 2 pages. The photos are interesting, but don't buy if you're looking for English language book.