Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt (1904 –
1983) was an influential
British
photographer and
photojournalist known for his high-contrast images of British society
and his distorted
nudes and
landscapes.
Born in Hamburg, Germany,
son of a British father and German mother, Brandt grew up during
World War I. Shortly after the war, he contracted
tuberculosis and spent much of his youth in a
sanatorium in
Davos, Switzerland. He traveled to Vienna to
undertake a course of treatment for TB by psychoanalysis. He was in any
case pronounced cured and began an apprenticeship in a portrait studio in
the city. When Ezra
Pound visited a mutual friend, Eugenie Schwarzwald, Brandt made his
portrait. In appreciation, Pound offered Brandt an introduction to Man Ray,
in whose Paris
studio, Brandt would assist in 1930.
In 1933 Brandt moved to London
and began documenting all levels of British society. This kind of
documentary was uncommon at that time. Brandt published two books
showcasing this work, The English at Home (1936) and A Night in
London (1938). He was a regular contributor to magazines such as
Lilliput,
Picture Post, and
Harper's Bazaar. He documented the
Underground bomb shelters of London during The
Blitz in 1940, commissioned by the
Ministry of Information.
During
World War II, Brandt focused every kind of subject - as can be seen in
his "Camera in London" (1948) but excelled in portraiture and landscape.
To mark the arrival of peace in 1945 he began a celebrated series of
nudes. His major books from the post-war period are Literary Britain
(1951), and Perspective of Nudes (1961), followed by a compilation
of the best of all areas of his work, Shadow of Light (1966). Brandt
became Britain's most influential and internationally admired photographer
of the
20th century. Many of his works have important social commentary but
also poetic resonance. His landscapes and nudes are dynamic, intense and
powerful, often using wide-angle lenses and distortion
