Bernd Becher, known with his wife, Hilla, for photographing relics of industry in the changing urban landscapes of late-20th-century Europe and the United States, died on Friday in Rostock, Germany. He was 75.

He died after heart surgery, said the photographer Thomas Struth, a former student.

In 2004, the Bechers received a Hasselblad Award, one of the highest international honors in photography. The award citation called the couple ''among the most influential artists of our time,'' noting that ''their systematic photography of functionalist architecture, often organizing their pictures in grids, brought them recognition as conceptual artists as well as photographers.''

The Hasselblad Foundation also said that as the founders of what became known as the Becher school, they influenced ''generations of documentary photographers and artists.''

Bernhard Becher was born on Aug. 20, 1931, in the coal-mining town of Siegen, Germany. He studied painting and lithography at the State Art Academy in Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956 with the painter Karl Rossing. He began photographing industrial sites close to his hometown, which he noticed were disappearing fast.

He and Hilla met in D?ldorf, where, in 1957, they started working together on the record of the industrial landscape that became their life work. The Bechers were married in Dusseldorf in 1961 and were art students at the D?ldorf Academy. One of their first projects, which they pursued for nearly two decades, was published as ''Framework Houses'' (Schirmer/Mosel) in 1977, a visual catalog of types of structures, an approach that characterized much of their work.

In 1976, Mr. Becher started teaching photography at the D?ldorf Academy, where he remained on the faculty for 20 years. Before him, photography had been excluded from what was largely a school for painters.

His influence as a teacher is measured by the success of well-known students like Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer, Thomas Ruff and Mr. Struth.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Becher is survived by their son, Max.

Photo: Bernd and Hilla Becher's 1972 study of of concrete cooling towers. (Photograph by Marian Goodman Gallery)