Water Towers (German: Wassertürme) by Bernd and Hilla Becher, photographed from 1959 through 1997 across Europe and the United States, presents industrial water towers as a recurring typological class within their joint study of industrial architecture.
The category grew from the Bechers' effort to record utilitarian structures before closure and demolition erased them, a concern rooted in the economic transformation of the Siegerland and Ruhr regions. They selected characteristic examples rather than attempting an exhaustive infrastructure survey, using repeated subjects to compare function, construction material, regional form, and historical change. Elevated tanks and their masonry, timber, steel, or concrete supports reveal engineering requirements for storage and water pressure. Company emblems, graffiti, parked cars, signs, and neighboring buildings also place these functional structures within human landscapes.
Most photographs isolate a single tower in a frontal, centered black-and-white view, with controlled distance and minimized perspective distortion. Diffuse cloud, fog, and sparse surroundings suppress strong shadows and seasonal effects, while the retained edges of streets and industrial sites give the structures a quiet geographic specificity. Because many towers are concentric or symmetrical, the Bechers generally considered one principal view sufficient. Displayed individually or in grids, often three-by-three, the images direct attention toward variations in tank profile, supporting framework, ornament, and material.
The earliest Spanish water-tower work followed their acquisition of a Linhof 6 × 9 cm camera, while their broader method relied on large-format view cameras, including a wooden 5 × 7-inch camera. They used raised viewpoints, ladders, or scaffolds to reduce optical distortion and waited for suitable weather or foliage. While traveling, the Bechers sometimes processed film in windowless motel bathrooms used as darkrooms, which let them check negatives and retake exposures before leaving a location. Major tableaux were issued as gelatin silver prints.
The Bechers' 1970 book Anonyme Skulpturen (Anonymous Sculptures), whose title presented industrial structures as sculpture, included water towers. A dedicated exhibition, Wassertürme, took place at Konrad Fischer Galerie in 1973, after water-tower typologies appeared at documenta 5 in 1972. Schirmer/Mosel published the book Wassertürme in 1988, and MIT Press issued the English edition as Water Towers that year. At the 1990 Venice Biennale the Bechers represented Germany with an installation of 340 photographs that included water towers. Although the work was photographic, they received the Biennale's Golden Lion in the sculpture category. Groups of water-tower prints are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, SFMOMA, and the Guggenheim.
