Bernd and Hilla Becher
The Hasselblad award was presented for the 24th time on Saturday 20 November 2004. The award winners, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Düsseldorf, received the award from Her Royal Highness Princess Lilian, at a ceremony at the Göteborg City Theatre. The award sum was SEK 500,000. In conjunction with the ceremony an exhibit of the award winners’ work, Bernd and Hilla Becher – 2004 Hasselblad Award Winners, opened at the Hasselblad Center at the Göteborg Art Museum.
The Foundation’s citation:
Bernd and Hilla Becher are among the most influential artists of our time. For more than forty years they have been recording the heritage of an industrial past. Their systematic photography of functionalist architecture, often organizing their pictures in grids, brought them recognition as conceptual artists as well as photographers. As the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ they have brought their influence in a unique way to bear on generations of documentary photographers and artists.
