Bernd and Hilla Becher. Water Towers. 1972 - 2009.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-water-towers-p81238
Brend And Hilla Becher's collection known as Water Towers, is a 'typology' of nine framed photographs. Each of these photographs are unified in color and subject mater. Each photograph depicts the industrial conical form of a weathered concrete water tower, scaled and cropped to roughly the same dimensions and location in each photo. Each photograph is is achromatic, giving them not only a unified look, but also prevents the observer to identify, at least visually the age of the photograph due to weathering of the photograph. The nine photographs are arranged in a rigid three by three grid. The repeated forms and their arrangement gives the collection an industrial feel, as if each one was constructed by the same company. However, each water tower's forms are slightly different. For some of the towers, there are ribbed support structures, while for others, there is an organic smooth form. Other variations include differences in height and thickness of the tower stems and reservoirs. Since The subject matter and arrangement give the collection a industrial look, the variations in rhythm can give the viewer a feeling that each tower on the periphery is a distorted variant of the central tower, as if looking through a fun house mirror.
