Image The Becher'sI've never met them (never will Bernd now) can't remember even seeing a photograph of them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_and_Hilla_Becher yet somehow in my imagination they have become like a kindly old aunt & uncle. Is it silly to think of them like that? is it disrespectful to regard two of the most important artists of the twentieth century like that? I know that in my work I would love to have had their approval. As much as any other artists, it would have been great to have them look at my work and say, "you have a way to go, but we can understand what you are trying to say. Keep going, stick with it our kid (or the German equivalent of our kid!) you may have something" they would say and smile. OK silly but a photographer can dream.......... In the mean time I will have to make do with reading interviews with them, and here's a cracker of one with Hilla. Found over on conscientious and translated by Jorg Colberg. I do think though that for "freaks" it should read "eccentrics" READ IT HERE: http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/2008/07/of_course_we_were_freaks_an_in.html
2 comments:
It uses "freaks" in the original German version, and that's why I kept it. And somehow, the use of the word "freaks" captures it more than "eccentrics" (because that's how they were treated for a long time).
Fair enough, it's just that "freaks" has such a negative connotation, and like I said they feel like an aunt & uncle so maybe I was getting protective. But if that's what it said that's what it said and thanks for the translation, it made for a fascinating read...........
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