Art Term

Dusseldorf School of Photography

The Dusseldorf School of Photography refers to a group of photographers who studied at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in the mid 1970s under the influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher

Known for their rigorous devotion to the 1920s German tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), the Bechers’ photographs were clear, black and white pictures of industrial archetypes (pitheads, water towers, coal bunkers).

Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth modified the approach of their teachers by applying new technical possibilities and a personal and contemporary vision, while retaining the documentary method their tutors propounded.

  • Photography

    Photography refers to the process or practice of creating a photograph – an image produced by the action of light on a light-sensitive material

  • Documentary photography

    Documentary photography is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage

  • New Objectivity

    New Objectivity is the English translation of 'Neue Sachlichkeit', a German modern realist movement of the 1920s, described by one of its founders as ‘new realism bearing a socialist flavour’

explore this term

selected artists in the collection

selected artworks in the collection

dusseldorf school of photography at tate

  • Cruel Tender

    Cruel and Tender past exhibition at Tate Modern 5 June – 7 September 2003

  • Thomas Ruff

    Press release announcing Thomas Ruff 1979 to the present past exhibition at Tate Liverpool 2003

Close