Comments on: Bill Brandt, Photographer

By: Nigel Blacker

Nigel Blacker — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 08:37:36 +0000

Brants work is such a contribution to our past, gritty, and so interesting to observe.

By: Alchemy Photography

Alchemy Photography — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:07:55 +0000

Great set of photographs even more impressive considering the time

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:14:12 +0000

One of the greatest photographic artists who knew exactly what he wanted and how to achieve it. Brandt very rarely took a quick picture. Most are set up very carefully, as Nicholas Sack has previously said Brandt used his brother and sister-in-law for the couple in Peckham. The photograph of the policeman in Bermondsey was also staged to look like a candid shot. It didn’t really matter because the resulting image is what Brandt wanted. Of all the photographers of his time Brandt was the one who was looking not only for the picture but also for the art. His images stand alone as pictures that not only illustrate a story but also as works of art. His skill in the darkroom is legendary, he would manipulate every print until he had exactly what he wanted. Look carefully at his famous photograph of Halifax with the children running alongside the railway tracks towards the camera with the sign on a post that says “Catch Points”. There is a chimney on the left with a stream of smoke issuing forth…but the smoke was put in afterwards by using the simple method of shining a small torch on the printing paper which produced the black smoke. Simple but very effective. Everything is not what it seems in Brandt’s pictures but that was what made him great. He made the camera tell untruths, just as painters have used all manner of tricks to produce great pictures, for instance Turner’s “The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up”. Everything in this painting is a product of Turner’s imagination but it is admired and loved by millions for what it is, a beautiful work of art. Brandt may not be Turner but many of his pictures are beautiful works of art. Nowadays it would be almost impossible for Brandt to get his work accepted and exhibited. Photography now – at least for me – is in a state of deep decline, driven by the false construct of photography having to be part of some concept or other. Pictures have to be about something, rather than of something. There are few photographers today who produce work that can match Bill Brandt.

By: Achim

Achim — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 14:23:38 +0000

Very impressing Photographs!

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Nicholas Sack

Nicholas Sack — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 08:56:10 +0000

Brandt regularly used his brother Rolf and sister-in-law Ester in staged scenes that appear natural; they are the couple in Peckham. Are they arguing, or is he propositioning her? He also printed some London scenes very dark, to resemble night, with varying success; in some cases the shadows are far too pronounced to be cast by the moon or street lights. Brandt is a towering figure in photography, his images still fresh and strong, and dripping with uneasy atmosphere.

By: Dan Ward

Dan Ward — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 05:30:32 +0000

These are absolutely brilliant! Not seen many of these before but his work is so varied and amazing

By: Janet M

Janet M — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:59:54 +0000

It’s a toss-up between the opera hat and the fish hat, but I think I would rather have a fish hat. 😉

By: Annie G

Annie G — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 15:54:38 +0000

These are brilliant – most of them I have never seen before. The poor soul using the lamppost to hold himself up is my favourite. And the Mayfair drawing room. Both poignant.

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 14:30:53 +0000

Impossible to have a favorite in this magnificent array — But I confess that the couple in Peckham have me wondering, pondering, speculating, taking-notes-for-a-short-story, and staring deep into the photo for further clues. I am under their spell.
Yours is an incredible nation, and this gent was one of your most gifted chroniclers. Bravo.

By: Chris F

Chris F — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 10:59:08 +0000

Beautiful pictures… We need these constant photographic reminders to impress on us that there were, for many, never any ‘good old days’… Just hard graft & poverty. It saddens me that in 2017 we still have people all over these isles living in squalid conditions… We need more contemporary photographers like Brandt documenting these times?