Figures

Figures is a collection of images created from details taken from the photographs reproduced in the thirteen typological volumes by Bernd and Hilla Becher, published between 1977 and 2013.

Known for their methodical inventory of industrial architecture, the Bechers’ photographs sometimes reveal, in the margins, almost invisible human presences. Reduced to the scale of a detail, these silhouettes seem to be absorbed by the structures surrounding them.

By isolating, enlarging and redrawing these fragments, Gilles Pourtier shifts the focus from the object to the subject. What was once merely anecdotal becomes central: a posture, a moment of waiting, a gesture. Figures thus reveals the discreet traces of human lives buried in the archive and offers a sensitive interpretation of a body of work in which humanity seemed to have vanished behind the forms of industry.