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Bill Brandt: A Life
Bill Brandt, the greatest of British photographers, who visually defined the English identity in the mid-twentieth century, was an enigma. Indeed, despite his assertions to the contrary, he was not in fact English at all. His life, like much of his work, was an elaborate construction. England was his adopted homeland and the English were his chosen subject.
The England in which Brandt arrived in the Thirties was deeply polarized. He photographed both upstairs and downstairs, and recorded the industrial north as well as the society rounds of the affluent south. Although much of his work was for the new illustrated magazines, it was frequently influenced by surrealism and an eye for the slightly strange. The subjects of his portraits include the greatest creative figures of his age, and his English landscapes were sublime. His radical treatment of the female body forms a landmark in the history of the photography.
Paul Delany ambitiously traces the details of Brandt’s life and reveals how the biographical facts and the fantasies that accompanied them deeply affected Brandt’s work. The biography is richly illustrated with duotone reproductions of his masterpieces and a number of unpublished private photographs.
The England in which Brandt arrived in the Thirties was deeply polarized. He photographed both upstairs and downstairs, and recorded the industrial north as well as the society rounds of the affluent south. Although much of his work was for the new illustrated magazines, it was frequently influenced by surrealism and an eye for the slightly strange. The subjects of his portraits include the greatest creative figures of his age, and his English landscapes were sublime. His radical treatment of the female body forms a landmark in the history of the photography.
Paul Delany ambitiously traces the details of Brandt’s life and reveals how the biographical facts and the fantasies that accompanied them deeply affected Brandt’s work. The biography is richly illustrated with duotone reproductions of his masterpieces and a number of unpublished private photographs.
- GenresPhotographyArt
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 23, 2021
Can't have been easy to craft a decent narrative about a man whose art was the largest window ever permitted into his private life. As for the plates some aren't fine but neither was the price I paid. It's a welcome homage to one of the greatest "British" photographers and I treasure it.
November 3, 2015
Who was Bill Brandt? The studio of this photographer produced well-known images of social comment - the man scavenging for coal in the depression, the East End housewife scrubbing her doorstep. His work has appeared in many exhibitions and been reproduced in the press but the man behind the lens is not well-known.
This biography creates a portrait of a complex, anguished personality - a man from a privileged background who suffered trauma that he would never describe, was a TB patient in his youth and a long-term diabetic in later life, and whose relationships with women were complex, with a repeated and long-lasting pattern of Brandt plus two complaisant women. His private and professional selves met in his habit of using family members in staged scenes.
As a photographer, he straddled two styles. In spite of picturing scenes which represented social and economic situations, he was not a photo-journalist, relying on a fast reaction to a happening; nor was he a puritan averse to any mediation between the click of the shutter and the final print. On the contrary, he prided himself on his skill in the darkroom and would enhance the basic image by cropping it or exaggerating the shadows. In advance of an assignment he might plan his approach, like a painter deciding on a colour palette or a perspective before priming the canvas. One commission was a portrait of John Le Carré, who, bemused by the experience, said, “I think he came to confirm what he had in his mind.”
This book is equally the story of a gifted and unusual man and an appraisal of his creative work. Plentifully illustrated with his professional work, including portraits of Ezra Pound and Francis Bacon, the biography contains photographs from Brandt’s youth in Hamburg, his apprenticeship in Paris and later life in London.
QUOTES:
Brandt on arrival in England: "About an hour before Newhaven, the Seven Sisters appear like a fata Morgana on the horizon, brilliantly white in the afternoon sun .... England then looks like a small fairy tale island."
"Brandt's turning to landscape in the 1940s can also be seen as part of a broader plan to make himself into a complete and indispensable English artist."
This biography creates a portrait of a complex, anguished personality - a man from a privileged background who suffered trauma that he would never describe, was a TB patient in his youth and a long-term diabetic in later life, and whose relationships with women were complex, with a repeated and long-lasting pattern of Brandt plus two complaisant women. His private and professional selves met in his habit of using family members in staged scenes.
As a photographer, he straddled two styles. In spite of picturing scenes which represented social and economic situations, he was not a photo-journalist, relying on a fast reaction to a happening; nor was he a puritan averse to any mediation between the click of the shutter and the final print. On the contrary, he prided himself on his skill in the darkroom and would enhance the basic image by cropping it or exaggerating the shadows. In advance of an assignment he might plan his approach, like a painter deciding on a colour palette or a perspective before priming the canvas. One commission was a portrait of John Le Carré, who, bemused by the experience, said, “I think he came to confirm what he had in his mind.”
This book is equally the story of a gifted and unusual man and an appraisal of his creative work. Plentifully illustrated with his professional work, including portraits of Ezra Pound and Francis Bacon, the biography contains photographs from Brandt’s youth in Hamburg, his apprenticeship in Paris and later life in London.
QUOTES:
Brandt on arrival in England: "About an hour before Newhaven, the Seven Sisters appear like a fata Morgana on the horizon, brilliantly white in the afternoon sun .... England then looks like a small fairy tale island."
"Brandt's turning to landscape in the 1940s can also be seen as part of a broader plan to make himself into a complete and indispensable English artist."
September 17, 2007
5 stars for the 30s-50s pics, 4 stars for the pics overall, 3 stars for this book. A valiant attempt really considering how secretive was its subject. Basically Brandt comes across as a lot less interesting than the times he lived in/recorded.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews