ABSTRACT
Beauty is a relationship connecting people to others, to objects, and to ideas. Beauty and economy are an unlikely pairing, however. Economy has to do with working life, whereas beauty is exciting and unique. The idea of beauty in industry has seldom been so enshrined as in the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher. For many years they photographed grain elevators, water towers, factories, and mine-heads, mostly in Germany. The value of beauty in capitalism extends beyond body magic. Magazines such as House Beautiful present images of beautiful domestic arrangements and accoutrements, as do architectural magazines that display beautiful exteriors and interiors of homes. In capitalism, beauty refers to an object, a product, or the adorned and beautified person. It is the result or end of production. In house and communally based economies the process of work or workmanship more often evokes feelings of beauty.
