DISTANCE AND PROXIMITY is dedicated to the clear, even austere, vision of Bernd and Hilla Becher and their former students of the art of photography at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. Bernd and Hilla Becher – since 1976 professors at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf – and a number of their former students are the most influential photographers of our time, and major artists on the international scene. The exhibition presents 76 works, some of them extra large. The selection reflects both the artists' shared approach to the chosen motifs and their artistic position. DISTANCE AND PROXIMITY is part of the exhibition series, 'Photography in Germany from 1850 to the Present', conceived and organized by curator Wulf Herzogenrath and ifa. It is a history of German photography in independent sections documenting important aspects of the development of this technical and artistic medium. The various subject exhibitions document different photographic approaches and stylized artistic stances.