Four by Four

Hilla & Bernd Becher, "Watertowers, 1967-80."

The German photographers Hilla and Bernd Becher are justifiably famous for serial portraits of aging industrial structures.  Like these watertowers, the work can easily be interpreted as commentary on a decrepit system: we see the literal ruins of capitalism's faith in industrialization and vice versa.  The photographs, repetitive and devoid of people, seem to be hymns to a mechanized modern workforce.

But the towers are also beautiful objects in...