Gas Tanks 1992

Curator: This photograph, titled "Gas Tanks," was taken in 1992 by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Their project reflects conceptual and New Objectivity concerns. What’s your initial impression? Editor: My first reaction is awe and a sense of detachment. Fifteen hulking gas tanks in serial form – a monotonous yet somehow beautiful testimony to industrial function. You feel how raw the process must have been in building them. Curator: Precisely. The Bechers are renowned for documenting industrial structures with an almost clinical objectivity. They approached their work as an endeavor in photographic typology, systematically cataloging these buildings to study variations in design and form across time and location. Editor: The materials become intensely present. Look at the varied textures on the metal skins; the rivets, the rust, the wear—the way the light catches the curved surfaces, revealing their materiality. Curator: Absolutely. Consider these tanks not just as isolated objects, but as cultural symbols. These gas tanks remind me of archaic, classical forms, like Greek temples dedicated to industry, with a kind of visual rhyme, like a solemn architectural score. They stand as testaments to societal progress, while also being a forewarning, loaded with allusions to consumption and environment impact. Editor: I’d suggest there's another narrative at work. The labor is made clear in the very subject. We see the product, not the act. The uniformity obscures the stories and realities of industrialization; labor becomes abstract. Curator: A sobering perspective. But to their credit, the Bechers pushed against artistic conventions. They are not merely capturing the external reality of the tanks, but also revealing deeper truths regarding industrial evolution and function. Editor: A powerful study on material conditions shaping how we consume, build, and, importantly, remember the age of mechanical reproduction. Thank you for this dive, it made me want to examine closer!