Influences: Bill Brandt

 

This is the first in an occasional series of blogs on my influences as a photographer.  I'm not going to focus on the really famous folks who nearly everyone knows -- certainly, I've been influenced by Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon and the like.  What I want to focus on here (nudge, nudge) is those as much visual artists as documenters, who have a unique style.

Wikpedia tells us "Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt, 2 May,1904 – 20 December,1983), was a German-British photographer and photojournalist."  He worked in black and white, often using a vintage pinhole camera,  a wooden box with a primitive wide-angle lens.  He had an amazing eye for landscape (urban as well as natural), texture, and the human form.  The trope of "female body as landscape" has become a cliche, but Brandt did it first, best, and most tastefully.  His best photos isolate as much as they depict, with that air of mystery that marks great art.

In these blogs, in the interests of respecting intellectual and artistic property, I'll try to make a practice of copying only one image, and referring you to a source for others.  By all means, visit www.billbrandt.com, and the many other sites that feature his work.