Bill Brandt 2

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Bill Brandt Shadow & Light

Sarah Hermanson Meister 5

Published in conjunction with the Published by The Museum of Front cover: Belgravia, London, 1951. exhibition Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light, Modern Art, New York Gelatin silver print, 9 ¼ x 7 ½" (23.5 x Director’s Foreword...... 6 1 London in the Thirties...... 32 List of Plates...... 182 at The Museum of Modern Art, New 11 West 53 Street 19.1 cm). Collection David Dechman York (March 6–August 12, 2013), New York, NY 10019 and Michel Mercure Glenn D. Lowry organized by Sarah Hermanson Meister, www.moma.org (see page 150) 2 Northern England...... 70 Curator, Department of Photography. “No Rules”: An Illustrated...... 186 © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art, Back cover: Henry Moore, 1960. Gelatin Acknowledgments...... 8 Glossary of Bill Brandt’s Major support for the exhibition is New York silver print, 9 ⅛ x 7 ¹³⁄16" (23.1 x 19.8 cm). provided by GRoW Annenberg/ The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sarah Hermanson Meister 3 World War II...... 84 Retouching Techniques Annenberg Foundation, The Robert All works by Bill Brandt are © 2013 Gift of Edwynn Houk Mapplethorpe Foundation, Heidi and Bill Brandt Archive Ltd. Copyright (see page 118) Lee Ann Daffner Richard Rieger, Ronit and William credits for certain illustrations are cited ...... 10 4 Portraits...... 108 Berkman, and by Peter Schub, in honor in the photograph credits on page 207. Endpapers: Detail of Cuckmere River, Shadow and Light: of Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz. Research All rights reserved. Sussex, 1963 The Life and Art of Bill Brandt Bill Brandt’s Published ...... 194 and travel support provided by The (see page 143) International Council of The Museum Library of Congress Control Number: Sarah Hermanson Meister 5 Landscapes...... 130 Photo-Stories, 1939–1945 of Modern Art. 2012950724 Frontispiece: Bill Brandt. Hungary, c. 1930. Gelatin silver print, 10 ⁵⁄16 x Sarah Hermanson Meister and ISBN: 978-0-87070-845-9 Additional generous funding for this 8 ⅜" (26.2 x 21.2 cm). The Museum of 6 Nudes...... 144 Marley Blue Lewis publication was provided by the Modern Art, New York. Acquired John Szarkowski Publications Fund. through the generosity of Ronald A. Kurtz Distributed in the United States and Produced by the Department of Selected Exhibition History...... 204 Canada by Artbook | D.A.P. Publications, The Museum of 155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd Floor Modern Art, New York New York, NY 10013 Selected Bibliography...... 206 Edited by Jason Best www.artbook.com Designed by Beverly Joel, pulp, ink. Distributed outside the United States Production by Matthew Pimm and Canada by Thames & Hudson Ltd. Trustees of The Museum of...... 208 181 High Holborn Printing and binding by NINO Druck London WC1V 7QX Modern Art and Members GmBH, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, www.thamesandhudson.com of the Committee on Photography Germany

Tritone separations by Martin Senn Printed in Germany This book is typeset in Erato and Johnston ITC. The paper is 150gsm Magno Satin.

Table of Contents 6 7

The Museum of Modern Art is proud to retrospective organized by John Szarkowski embrace, concurrent with the publication Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the Museum’s to the future and to the critical role of present this major reconsideration of the at the Museum in 1969 to present the of Brandt’s collection, Perspective of Nudes. founding director, had a vision for the photography within the visual culture of work of Bill Brandt, the artist who defined various aspects of Brandt’s career as the By the next year when John institution that would “expand beyond the the twenty-first century, the Museum is the potential of photographic modernism sum of a single oeuvre, the singular Szarkowski succeeded Steichen in the narrow limits of painting and sculpture,” equally and actively committed to a deeper in England for much of the twentieth product of one artist’s dynamic fifty-year Department of Photography, the Museum encompassing modern art in all media, understanding of key figures in photog­ century and whose remarkably broad engagement with the photo­graphic owned fourteen Brandt photographs: four and not long after opening its doors in raphy’s history, exemplified by this oeuvre endures as a landmark in the medium. The fresh scholarship produced landscapes acquired in 1959 and ten nudes November 1929, the Museum was col­ reconsideration of the work of Bill Brandt. history of the medium. Brandt achieved by Sarah Meister, Curator in the Depart­ following the 1961 exhibition. A few more lecting and exhibiting film, photog­raphy, On behalf of the staff and trustees early acclaim for his characterizations of ment of Photog­raphy, has resulted in a trickled in, and MoMA purchased forty architecture, and industrial design, of the Museum, I would especially like to the British social structure and life in more nuanced and coherent path by which of the 125 prints made by Brandt for his highlighting the connections among them thank Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, London in the 1930s; three decades later, one can follow the trajectory of Brandt’s 1969 retrospective (for $25 each). Until in a way that would find echoes in Brandt’s Peter Schub, The Robert Mapplethorpe he would publish the fruits of an extended development as an artist, particularly recently, these prints—the vast majority of work. Like many contemporary artists, Foundation, Heidi and Richard Rieger, and investigation that yielded some of the most during the transforma­tive period which were printed decades after the Brandt drew inspiration from (and, in turn, Ronit and William Berkman for their striking and inventive studies of the female coinciding with the Second World War, original negatives—formed the core of inspired) an artistic milieu broader than generous support of the exhibition, as well nude ever produced. In the intervening and her attentive consideration of the MoMA’s Brandt collection. Recognizing the medium with which he chose to create. as TheI nternational Council of The years, Brandt trained his lens on a variety dramatic evolution of Brandt’s printing the fundamental significance of Brandt’s His close attention to the cinema­tography Museum of Modern Art for its research of subjects, ranging from the Depression- style stands as an indispensable resource achievement to the history of twentieth- of Gregg Toland in Citizen Kane had a and travel support. The John Szarkowski stricken industrial towns of Northern for future assessments of Brandt’s art. century photography, the Museum profound effect on the way in which he Publications Fund has made this book England to portraits of some of the leading It is fitting that this important identified Brandt’s work as a strategic approached his early nudes, for example, possible, and I would also like to thank the literary figures in Britain of the time, examination would take place at MoMA, priority for acquisition in 2006, and since and the anatomical distortions in the Committee of Photography and the many working both by his own inclination and as the Museum’s relationship with Brandt then MoMA has acquired seventy vintage sculptural forms of Henry Moore resonate other enthusiastic and dedicated friends on assignment for several of the most dates back to when the Department of prints, which have allowed for a more strongly with the extreme and unfamiliar of the Department of Photography whose widely read illustrated magazines of his Photography was less than a year old and comprehensive understanding of the perspectives of the photog­rapher’s late contributions fittingly established this day. A number of his images of the the artist was not yet forty, when MoMA radical transformations of the artist and his nudes. Brandt’s achievement had a fund in honor of John Szarkowski. Blackout in London and the impact of the first exhibited Brandt’s photographs in the technique. Peter Galassi, then Chief sig­ni­ficant impact on artists as disparate as Blitz on the city’s residents during World exhibition Britain at War in 1941 (the work Curator in the Department of Photography, Ansel Adams, Robert Frank, R. B. Kitaj, War II remain iconic. itself was unattributed, a practice that was the first to articulate this need, and his and David Hockney, a fact to which they Even as many of Brandt’s photo­ was not uncommon at the time). Several enthusiasm was matched, and occasionally attest in their writings. A quick perusal of graphs became instantly recognizable and years later, Edward Steichen, the newly surpassed, by the efforts of Sarah Meister his bibliography suggests how the the photographer himself (a natural-born appointed Director of the Department of and David Dechman, a longtime Brandt luminaries of twentieth-century British German) acquired enormous popularity in Photography, presented a cross-section enthusiast and a Member of the Board of literature felt compelled to comment on his adopted country and abroad, critical of Brandt’s work to date within Four Trustees and the Museum’s Committee Brandt’s work, which itself drew appraisals of Brandt have often been Photographers (1948). Steichen would go on Photography, who was instrumental in inspiration from theirs. confounded by one of the very aspects that on to include four photographs by Brandt this initiative. This exhibition and With the appointment of Quentin made his career so unique: its impressive in his landmark exhibition The Family of catalogue reflect the culmination of that Bajac, who will become Chief Curator of breadth. Brandt ranged widely; he had Man, which opened at MoMA in 1955 and effort, which has not only more than the Department of Photography in January neither a signature subject nor printing subsequently circulated to thirty-seven doubled the number of Brandt prints in 2013, the Museum will begin a new chapter style. As such, his body of work has countries on six continents, and at the MoMA’s collection but now, for the first in the acquisition, publi­cation, and display typically been considered not as a whole conclusion of his tenure in 1961, Steichen time, allows each chapter of Brandt’s of photographs, and in exploring the role but as separate and distinct parts marking exhibited forty-two photographs from sweeping career to be represented in the those photographs play within the broader disparate accomplishments. This Brandt’s ground­breaking series of postwar way the artist had originally intended context of modern and contemporary exhibition is the first attempt since the nudes—the series’s first institutional for it to be seen. art. While MoMA remains keenly attuned Director’s Foreword

Glenn D. Lowry

MEISTER 8 9

Any exhibition at the Museum and its The origins of this project reach back Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow (2008– appreciation extends to Erik Landsberg, Getty Images/Hulton Picture Archive, I would like to echo Glenn Lowry’s accompanying catalogue require the to 2006, when Bill Brandt was first 11); Drew Sawyer, who holds that position Director, and Robert Kastler, Production London; Michael Wilson and Polly Fleury expression of gratitude to Gregory essential involvement of dozens of dedi-­­ identified as a strategic priority for today; and Marley Blue Lewis, Research Manager, both from the Department of at the Wilson Centre for Photography; Annenberg Weingarten, Peter Schub, The cated individuals, and this project is no acquisition. Peter Galassi, Chief Curator in Assistant. In distinct and significant ways, Imaging and Visual Resources, and David Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg; Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Heidi exception. My first thanks are to Glenn D. the Department of Photography from 1991 these three have made this book and Allison, who photographed the majority of Robert Stevens; Vince Aletti; and last but and Richard Rieger, and Ronit and William Lowry, Director; Peter Reed, Senior through 2011, articulated this need with exhibition possible, and I owe each of the objects that appear in this catalogue. certainly not least, Pryor Dodge, son of Berkman for their essential support of this Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs; characteristic passion and intelligence, and them an enormous debt of gratitude. Not My thanks as well to Martin Senn for Lyena Barjanski, who has shared his exhibi­tion, to TheI nternational Council of and Ramona Bronkar Bannayan, Senior his influence on my understanding of surprisingly, given the project’s long his skill in making the color separations. extensive research and insights along with The Museum of Modern Art for a very Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Brandt and the directions in which this gestation period, the list of interns who That Beverly Joel of pulp, ink. his mother’s extraordinary albums. important travel grant, and to the John Collections, for their critical and steadfast initiative has unfolded cannot be have provided important assistance with a developed a design for this book that is a For instrumental help in my research Szarkowski Publications Fund (and all support. I am grateful to Diana Pulling, underestimated. I have also enjoyed the variety of tasks is long: Grayson Cowing, fitting foil to Brandt’s art will no doubt and for sharing his personal perspective on who contributed to it) for making it Chief of Staff, for her encourage­ment support of my extremely dedicated and Amy Creighton, Kristen Gaylord, Laura become apparent to anyone reading these Brandt’s work, I would like to express my possible for the Museum of publish such and diplomatic guidance, and to Leah talented colleagues in the Department of Guerrin, Andrea Hackman, Sarah Jamison, pages: I deeply appreciate her creativity, gratitude to Mark Haworth-Booth, curator independent scholarship. Finally, I would Dickerman, Curator in the Department of Photography, beginning with Roxana Emily Kloppenburg, Seyoung Lee, Sarah good humor, hard work, and the distinc­ at the Victoria and Albert Museum from be remiss not to underscore my deep Painting and Sculpture, for her construc­ Marcoci, Curator, and Eva Respini, Montross (who deserves special mention tive elegance of this finished product. Jason 1970 through 2004, whose distinguished gratitude to three individuals whom I’ve tive early feedback. My profound Associate Curator, who have each provided for her instrumental research, both during Best’s extraordinary talent as an editor scholarship has shaped many subsequent already mentioned but who nevertheless appreciation goes to Lee Ann Daffner, welcome insights throughout. Marion her time at the Museum and after), Sarah might be less evident but has been no less appreciations of Brandt’s work. Likewise, have made essential contributions to the Andrew W. Mellon Conservator of Tandé, Department Manager, has expertly O’Keefe, Allison Pappas, Noah Pritzker, critical to ensuring the quality of the I would like to thank Martin Barnes and development of this project and to the Photographs, whose deep commitment to managed the complexities of this ongoing Kristen Ross, and Juanita Solano. finished product. To both these talented Marta Weiss at the Victoria and Albert overall collection of Bill Brandt’s work at furthering our material understanding of acquisition effort and so much more, and In the Department of Publications, individuals I extend my heartfelt thanks, Museum; Hilary Roberts at the Imperial the Museum: David Dechman, an ardent photographs manifests itself in the Megan Feingold, Department Coordinator, my thanks begin with Christopher Hudson, and the three of us together commend War Museum; and Lindsey Stewart at supporter and informed connoisseur of illustrated glossary she had contributed to has ensured that the internal and external Publisher, whose stalwart support began Elizabeth Smith for her attentive Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. Through our Brandt’s work; Edwynn Houk, whose this book. Both she and Hanako Murata, presentations related to this project early and has continued undiminished. proofreading. informal conversations about aspects of gallery represents the Estate of Bill Brandt; Assistant Conservator of Photographs, are are both elegant and without error. I have The wise counsel ofD avid Frankel, Half of the reproductions in this Brandt’s practice and the ways their own and John-Paul Kernot, Brandt’s step- responsible for the skillful treatment of repeatedly relied on Karen Van Wart, Editorial Director, has been as welcome catalogue are made from prints that are work has shaped my understanding of grandson and director of the Bill Brandt several photographs reproduced on these Preparator, to care for the physical well- and needed here as ever, and for it I am not in the Museum Collection, and I am Brandt’s legacy, I would also like to thank Archive. My sincere appreciation as well pages, work that is at once invisible to most being and presentation of the prints deeply grateful. Kara Kirk and Chul indebted to those who provided access to the artists Chris Killip and Paul Graham. goes to Noya Brandt, Brandt’s wife from viewers yet is vital to best appreciate considered for acquisition and exhibition. (Charles) Kim, past and present Associate their exceptional collections of Brandt’s On a personal note, I feel fortunate 1972 and a champion of his work before Brandt’s prints, and her work with Ana Tasha Lutek, Cataloguer, has handled Directors of Publications, expertly work and their attendant assistance: to enjoy the advice and friendship of and after his death in 1983, for sharing her Martens, Associate Conservation Scientist, countless research tasks regarding the managed the project both internally and John-Paul Kernot at the Bill Brandt Archive; Harper Montgomery and Elise Meslow personal insights with me; it is fitting also contributed tremendously to our history of Brandt and his work at the externally. Marc Sapir, Production Director, David Dechman; Edwynn Houk, Julie Ryan, each of whom has helped with this that one of the most recent acquisitions to efforts to illuminate Brandt’s career through Museum with creativity and persistence. and Matthew Pimm, Production Manager, Castellano, and Alexis Dean at Edwynn project over the years. I thank my parents, the Museum’s collection of Brandt’s contemporary conservation analysis. I am I am also grateful to Mitra Abbaspour, are responsible for the unfailingly high Houk Gallery; Malcolm Daniel, Jeff Susie Hermanson and Terry Hermanson, photographs was given in her honor. It has grateful as well to the Museum’s Associate Curator for the ThomasW alther quality of the book’s printing, balancing Rosenheim, Meredith Friedman, and Anna for their support of my passion for been a pleasure and a privilege to get to outstanding team of professionals­ who Collection Research Project, for her the individuality of the prints and Wall at The Metro­politan Museum of Art; photog­raphy since the sixth grade, and know each of these individuals better ensure the high quality of our exhibitions, enthusiasm and, in particular, for her the potentially distracting appearance of Sandy Phillips, Corey Keller, and Erin my sisters (and most candid critics), Leslie through this project. and in particular I would like to thank helpful commentary on my catalogue essay. Brandt’s active retouching with true O’Toole at the San Francisco Museum of Lynch and Merril Hermanson. To my Jerry Neuner, Director, and David Hollely, This project has enjoyed the focused sensitivity. And I thank Hannah Kim, Modern Art; Terence Pepper, Helen husband, Adam, and our children, Manager, Exhibition Design and Produc­ attention of three people within the Marketing Coordinator, for helping to Trompeteler, and Georgia Atienza at the Madeline and Lee, thank you for your tion; Ellen Conti, Assistant Registrar, Photography Department without whose ensure all this hard work receives the National Portrait Gallery, London; Anne unending love, patience, and under­ Collections; and Jessica Cash, Assistant involvement I cannot imagine drafting notice it is due. For their instrumental help Tucker and Del Zogg at the Museum standing as I took time away from you Coordinator of Exhibitions. these words: Dan Leers, Beaumont and with the imaging for this book, my of Fine Arts, Houston; Sarah McDonald at all to work on this. Acknowledgments

Sarah Hermanson Meister

MEISTER 10 11

I believe this power of seeing the world as I. photography, with a strong emphasis on though the material comfort of his family fresh and strange lies hidden in every Bill Brandt is a founding figure of photog­ contemporary cultural figures in Britain enabled a lifestyle one might asso­ciate human being. In most of us it is dormant. raphy’s modernist traditions whose visual and the country’s rich literary heritage. His with the upper classes, this was not Yet it is there, even if it is no more than a explorations of the society, land­scape, crowning artistic achievement—developed synonymous with British aristocracy. To vague desire, an unsatisfied appetite that and literature of England are indis­pensable primarily from 1945 to 1961—is a series of Brandt, though, all this was irrelevant: cannot discover its own nourishment…. to any understanding of photographic nudes that are both personal and art was what mattered. universal, sensual and strange, collectively Throughout his nearly fifty-year Vicariously, through another person’s eyes, history and, arguably, to our understanding of life in Britain during the middle of the exemplifying the “sense of wonder” career, Brandt embraced photography’s men and women can see the world anew. twentieth century. Although perhaps not as paramount to Brandt. Considered against potential to use unadorned fact to create It is shown to them as something well-known as some of his contemp­ the achievements of his peers, Brandt’s art—a central tenet of photographic interesting and exciting. There is given to oraries—Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker work is unpredictable, not only in the modernism. But to a degree unmatched by them again a sense of wonder. Evans, for instance—he ranks among the range of his subjects but also for his his peers, he resolved the tension between visionaries who, in the diversity of their printing style, which varied widely reality and fantasy by transcending (or This should be the photographer’s aim, for approach, established the creative potential throughout his career. It is, in part, this ignoring) either label. With characteristic this is the purpose that pictures fulfill in of photography based on obser­vation of wide-ranging approach that makes Brandt ambivalence, Brandt suggested through the world as it is to-day. To meet a need the world around them. With a variety of such a com­pelling figure, yet the difficulty his work that photographic “truth” simply that people cannot or will not meet for cameras (from the handheld Leica to it presents in arriving at a comprehensive didn’t matter or, perhaps, given the themselves. We are most of us too busy, large-format view cameras) and sensibili­ understanding of his life’s work has also political landscape in which he formed his too worried, too intent on proving ties (from engaged to dispassionate, poetic long complicated critical appraisals of him. artistic identity, that it had been manipu­ Brandt’s unfettered approach to lated beyond the point where it had ourselves right, too obsessed with ideas, to clinical), these photographers distilled life into art through the camera’s lens. his art extended to his life as well. Born meaning. Much has been written of Bill to stand and stare. Brandt’s distinctive vision—his ability to to a prosperous German family, he lived Brandt’s mystery, of his willful evasiveness 1 – Bill Brandt present the mundane world as both fresh comfortably, if modestly, in England on the subject of his own life, of the and strange—reveals traces of the influence throughout his adulthood, blending easily incongruity of his creating such a personal of Eugène Atget, Man Ray, and Brassaï (an with his affluent relatives there after photographic vision while working often unusual combi­nation of egos and spending most of his twenties drifting on assignment, and of the difficulty of approaches), drawing almost capriciously, about continental Europe. Handsome and naming a single subject or style that and often simul­taneously, from each across reserved, he often enjoyed the attention of approaches an adequate characterization a career that is impossible to reduce to a more than one woman simultaneously, of his life’s work. Since his death in 1983, particular genre or style. suggesting an unconventional aspect of his every major book and exhibition that has Brandt established his reputation personality, if not quite bohemian. He had attempted to represent his career has done before the Second World War with the a delicate constitution (suffering from so with a number of carefully chosen publication of two books that featured his tuberculosis in childhood and diabetes as thematic divisions—indeed, in Brandt’s early photographic studies of British life, an adult), a wry sense of humor, and a own first attempt to summarize his oeuvre, The English at Home (1936) and A Night in pur­posefully apolitical perspective, par­ti­cu­ a book titled Shadow of Light (1966), he did London (1938), and he expanded upon larly when considered against the political the same, and the chapters he chose have this social documentary work during the backdrop of Europe at the time. Although formed the backbone of Brandt retrospec­ war and in the decades that followed with he would become something of an icon in tives ever since. In that respect, this book assignments for some of the leading Britain, as the almost exhaustive circula- is no exception, for its structure respects illustrated magazines of his day, a path tion of his exhibitions by the Arts Council Brandt’s desire to have his work organized that led variously into extended investi­ of Great Britain and the British Council thematically, not simply according gations of portraiture and land­scape suggests, he was not born British, and to some formal likeness. This book,

1 Bill Brandt, “A Photographer’s London,” in Camera in London Shadow and Light (London: The Focal Press, 1948), 15. TheL ife and Art of Bill Brandt

Sarah Hermanson Meister

MEISTER 12 13 however, fundamentally differs from those II. led his parents to pull him from his prior in that its primary function is to For many generations, Brandt’s family German boarding school, and he spent convey the art of Brandt’s photographic had operated a successful shipping and more than four years in Swiss sanatoria achievement in all its unruly splendor. banking business based in Hamburg, (first in Agra, then Davos) in an attempt to In the past, discussion­ of the Germany. That Brandt’s paternal grand­ cure his tuber­culosis. Essentially all physi­cal dramatic evolution of Brandt’s printing father was born in Russia and that his activity was forbidden in these seques­tered style has been relegated to the sidelines, father was born in London suggest the alpine environ­ments, which left Brandt and while it is necessary to value the nearly expansive reach of the business and plenty of time to read, watch movies, and impenetrable­ darkness and muted tones explains how Brandt’s father (the youngest experiment with a camera. His profound of his early prints from the 1930s, it is not of seven siblings) was, technically, a British interest in the visual and literary arts— so simple to dismiss the forcefulness of his citizen.3 Bill Brandt actively promoted the the foundation of which can be traced later interpretations as an aging man’s impression that he was British, but the to his bourgeois family life—was nurtured bastard prints. Indeed, a significant part of fact is he was born Hermann Wilhelm during this period of forced passivity. Brandt’s art is that the exposure of the Brandt in Hamburg in 1904, the second of Brandt likely dabbled with negative was, for him, only the beginning. four brothers, and raised in a German- photography during his treatment in In many respects each Brandt print is speaking household. There has been much Davos, but his first formal engagement unique because the perva­siveness of his speculation concerning the reasons for with the medium began in a Viennese hand in retouching his work—to correct Brandt’s apparent disavowal of his roots, photography studio. In the spring of 1927, and to enhance, with a variety of tools— but politics alone should suffice.I n he had been drawn to Vienna, where his means that it is rare to find two prints response to one request, he wrote: younger brother Rolf was then living, by presented in an identical manner.2 the prospect of having his tuberculosis Whereas the sections of plates here My wife tells me that you would like some cured through psychotherapy.5 Although it correspond roughly to Brandt’s dominant information about my life between 1953/69. is unclear whether psychoanalysis deserves subjects and to the structure he favored I am afraid nothing happened during those credit, Brandt succeeded in stabilizing for his own retrospective publications, a years. Actually, nothing has ever happened his health, and he needed to decide significant difference is the expanded to me. I have never hitch-hiked through Russia, what to do with his life. It was Dr. Eugenie consideration of the work Brandt made nor has anybody ever telephoned me from Schwarzwald, a prominent Viennese during World War II, a survey that goes Peking in the middle of the night. Even with intellectual and philanthropist with much beyond the pictures he made of the such highlights, I find biographical chrono­logies a particular interest in education, who is underground shelters in London during pathetic and boring. I think it would be less credited with suggesting photography. conventional and much more interesting to the Blitz and the moonlit scenes of the Brandt found a position as an apprentice in concentrate on photography and leave my life city during the Blackout that have long the studio of Grete Kolliner, and he worked alone. I hope you think so too.4 stood as a synecdoche for his work during there for much of 1927–28. His forceful that period. The organization of this essay portrait of Ezra Pound (left) was made itself seeks to provide a fresh analysis of Brandt was intensely private, so although during this time, employing the traditional Brandt’s art, with critical issues of his his soft-spoken nature has been inter­preted studio techniques of directed lighting, artistic development addressed for perhaps as an attempt to mask the German accent shallow depth of field, and a plain the first time in a chronological, rather that persisted even after decades of living backdrop. The portrait is more than a than thematic or project-based, context. in London, one might also consider it convincing like­ness: the tight cropping a reflection of an artist’s reticence to speak signaled Brandt’s avant-garde intent, and for his art. Brandt’s declining health as a he used the reductive means of Pound’s teenager in the years following World War I own poetry to convey the sitter’s intensity.

2 In the mid-1970s, Brandt began making prints specifically for Bill Brandt. Balloon Flying over the Northern Suburbs Bill Brandt. Ezra Pound, 1928. Gelatin silver print, 3 Paul Delany, Bill Brandt: A Life (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford 5 For about six months, Brandt was a patient of the Viennese sale, in association with Marlborough galleries in New York and of Paris, 1929. Gelatin silver print, 9 x 6⅞" (22.9 x 7½ x 6⅜" (19.1 x 16.2 cm). The Museum of Fine Arts, University Press, 2004). All biographical details about Brandt’s life physician and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel, who championed the London. The “Marlborough prints” were made from copy negatives are drawn from this book as well as Mark Haworth-Booth’s texts in potential of this approach to treat tuberculosis. (and then mounted and signed). They are arguably Brandt’s least 17.5 cm). Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York Houston Bill Brandt: Behind the Camera, Photographs 1928–1983 (Oxford, U.K.: inspiring prints, with a production-line uniformity to them, and Phaidon; New York: Aperture, 1985). yet a number of these include evidence of Brandt’s retouching on 4 Bill Brandt to Katherine Kinear at the Arts Council of Great the final print, when it would have been much easier for him to Britain, March 11, 1970, Victoria and Albert Museum archives, have made those adjustments at an interim stage. London. I am indebted to Mark Haworth-Booth for directing me to the original letter.

MEISTER 15

Its success notwithstanding, this portrait reinfected with tuberculosis, from which bears little in common with the hundreds Eva continued to suffer periodically that would define Brandt’s contribution to throughout her life. the genre during and afterW orld War II, The trio moved to Paris in 1930, where he would capture his sitters in their although they continued to travel homes or other familiar surroun­dings, and throughout the continent. Brandt started where their expressions would often working as an informal apprentice in the suggest a dreamlike aura (see, for example, studio of Man Ray, the American expatriate pp. 104–5).6 painter and photographer fourteen years It was in Austria that Brandt made the his senior who had become a key figure in acquaintance of two women with whom both the Dada and Surrealist movements. It he would remain close for decades. Just was at this time that Brandt developed his after leaving the sanatorium, he metL yena Surrealist sensibility—his obvious delight in Barjansky, a sixteen-year-old of Russian the uncanny aspects of the everyday that descent who attended Schwarzwald’s permeates much of his work. Even if Man school for girls, and, in the fall of 1928, Eva Ray was not actively instructing Brandt, Boros, whom Kolliner had taken on as from his work Brandt could not have failed another apprentice in her studio. Eva was to notice his printing experimen­tation, Hungarian and four years older than Lyena, particularly with the female nude, which but these two young women became would later find echoes in Brandt’s own Brandt’s constant compan­ i­ ons,­ traveling practice.8 The French photographer Eugène and living together through­out continental Atget, whose “documents” of Paris had Europe. The scrapbook albums kept by Eva captured the imagination of the Surrealists and Lyena, filled with photographs of and shortly before his death in 1927 and whose by Brandt, are extraordinary records of this first monograph (required reading for any generative period in Brandt’s life and are aspiring photographer) appeared in 1930, revealing in terms of his interests and travel, was another defining influence.9 Inspired as well as the very casual and personal by Atget’s simul­taneously methodical nature of his early explorations with a and poetic exploration of Paris, particularly camera—a distinct counterpoint to his its mannequins and shop windows, Brandt studio experience (facing).7 The nature of wandered through the city with his camera. Brandt’s romantic, or physical, relationship One of the best of his resulting images with each woman is unclear, so this was featured in Minotaure (the Surrealist- arrange­ment may not have been as radical oriented magazine that had succeeded as it seems, but it speaks to his magnetism La Révolution surréaliste), at the center of and to his willingness to defy social an article by René Crevel in 1934 (right).10 con­ven­tions, by appearance if nothing else. Paris in 1930 was teeming with In April 1932, during a trip to Spain, Eva photographers of extraordinary talent, but became Brandt’s wife, but it was several it was the Hungarian-born Brassaï who years before they lived under the same roof, managed to make his name synonymous which suggests a third possible factor in this with the city, most emphatically with the unusual arrange­ment: a fear of being publication of Paris de Nuit (“Paris by

6 Underscoring the need for more attention to the chronology of 8 Many years later Brandt told Man Ray: “You went out so often (facing, top row) Pages 17 and 18 from Lyena Barjansky’s Brandt’s career, his portrait of Pound is often published alongside that I did not learn much from you directly. But what I did was go first album chronicling her time with Bill Brandt, the postwar portraits, as if the intervening decades were through all the drawers and files that I would not have dared touch immaterial. when you were in the studio. So I learnt a great deal when you were including Brandt family photographs and images not there.” Ian Fraser, “Bill Brandt in Camera,” The World of Interiors, of Eva Boros and Lyena in Vienna, 1928–29. Lyena 7 Two of Eva Boros’s scrapbooks are in the collection of the February 1983: 80; quoted in Delaney, 62–63. Man Ray used the Barjansky Collection, courtesy of Pryor Dodge Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Lyena Barjansky’s scrapbooks term “Rayograph” to refer to his cameraless photographs, but more are in the collection of her son, Pryor Dodge, in New York. Brandt relevant to Brandt’s darkroom work, he would use solarization (facing) Individual pages from Lyena Barjansky’s second would ultimately include at least a dozen pictures that appear in (which reversed some tones from positive to negative during the album. Lyena Barjansky Collection, courtesy of Pryor the scrapbooks in The English at Home. printing process) and various screens to achieve his desired effect from a given negative. Dodge. (middle row, left) Page 11, Paris, 1930; (middle row, right) Page 23, Paris, 1931; (bottom row, left) Page 26, 9 Eugène Atget, Atget: Photographe de Paris (New York: E. Weyhe, Barcelona, April 1932; (bottom row, right) Page 34, London, 1930), with an introduction by Pierre Mac Orlan. 1931–32 10 René Crevel, “La grande mannequin cherche et trouve sa peau,” Minotaure 5 (May 1934): 18–19. (above) Minotaure, May 1934, p. 18. Brandt’s photograph (Marché aux Puces, Paris, c. 1930) illustrates an article by René Crevel

MEISTER 16 17

Night”) in 1933. Brassaï was Brandt’s only III. rightly, also considered a foreigner. He contemporary with a similarly fluid Brandt and Eva moved to London in April had the advantage of seeing this world as approach to photographic realism, and 1934.14 Supported in part by his parents, “fresh and strange” but with access Brandt paid close attention to his example. who would join the rest of the family in typically not afforded to outsiders.H is Brandt’s photograph of a prostitute in England shortly before the outbreak of the favorite subject was undoubtedly his Hamburg’s red-light district is a direct war, Brandt set about applying the lessons uncle’s parlormaid, known to the family as homage, although Brassaï’s subjects were he had learned on the continent to his Pratt, and he photographed her repeatedly, real women he encountered at work on the photographic explorations of the city that once even arranging his camera so that street, while Brandt used Eva as a model he would call home for the rest of his life. he could appear with her (facing, right).17 (facing, left).11 It was only with the By the late 1940s, after Brandt had esta­ The art of these photographs lies in their publication of A Night in London in 1938 blished himself as a regular contri­butor to ability to present each subject with an that Brandt demonstrated the full extent of the illustrated press, he wrote, “As a matter air of transparency, asking viewers to Brassaï’s influence—and how he made it of fact I am able to forget photography “stand and stare” but without judgment: his own. The similar titles were likely almost completely when I am not working the miners returning to daylight and the dictated by their shared publisher, Arts et and never carry a camera except on an racegoers at Ascot are seen with an Métiers Graphiques, and both books assignment.”15 Yet this was not the case in impassiveness that is often overlooked by feature glimpses into a range of noctural 1934. It would be more than two years those seeking to establish a political urban circumstances, although access to before Brandt received a commission to position for Brandt. the affluent came more easily to Brandt, do a photo-story and two years after that Less than two years after moving to who had a number of family members and before he could rely upon these assign­ London, Brandt published his first book, their servants who could pose for him.12 ments as a regular source of income. The English at Home, in February 1936. Brandt embraced the inky black expanses Fortunately, his pursuit of the English It wasn’t easy to find a publisher, but Brian that appeared frequently in Brassaï’s through the lens of his camera needed no Batsford, who had published the English work and the hyper-glossy surfaces that external motivation. edition of Brassaï’s Paris de Nuit in 1933, amplified this effect, which were favored The absence of regular assignments thought its subject in a novel-sized format for their superior repro­ducibility, but his allowed Brandt the luxury of photog­ had the potential for commercial success, pictures mani­fested a distinctly less raphing whatever caught his eye, and this perhaps based on his 1935 publication of sensational flair—Brandt was more frequently included friends and family Paul Cohen-Portheim’s The Spirit of interested in looking at the mundane members going about their everyday lives London.18 The English at Home would world with “a sense of wonder.”13 Of course, or posing for his camera. His photographs become Brandt’s calling card. His familial in the early and mid-1930s in Paris, were factual, and they rang true whether connections to affluent, if not aristocratic, opportunities for Brandt to publish his or not he had arranged the scene. He was social spheres in England provided an work were few and far between: André fascinated by the British social hierarchies, intimate look at their costumes and habits Kértész, Germaine Krull, Henri Cartier- and he worked diligently to create a in a way that had eluded Brassaï, who Bresson, Ilse Bing, and many others—in visual inventory of distinctly English types: photographed the Parisian elite almost addition to Brassaï—were actively seeking palace guards, “bobbies,” tailors, miners, surreptitiously, from a distance or through jobs for the illustrated press. Brandt’s homemakers, schoolchildren, nurses, a window. But Brandt was careful to decision to settle perma­nently in London professors, huntsmen, racegoers, and more. balance this work with images from across allowed him to sidestep this competition, Brandt’s attentiveness to the dis­tinc­tions of the social spectrum, and there is an and it was in the British capital that he social class, “that most British of preoccu­ equani­mity to his approach that imbues transformed the avant-garde esprit into pa­tions,”16 helped cement his identity as a his Workmen’s Restaurant (c. 1934; p. 62) his own art. British photogra­pher, even while he was, with the dignity of the Clubmen’s

11 A clear model for this photograph appears in Paris de Nuit 14 Brandt lived at 43 Belsize Avenue, and Eva had her own 17 Another view of Pratt in the dining room of Brandt’s uncle Bill Brandt. Hamburg, St. Pauli District, c. 1933. Gelatin Bill Brandt with Pratt, c. 1939. Gelatin silver print, (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1933), pl. 30. Even before the apartment, less than a ten-minute walk away. Lyena remained appears as the sixth plate in The English at Home, and Pratt is the silver print, 8 x 6¼" (20.3 x 15.9 cm). Courtesy of Edwynn 5⅛ x 4⅛" (13 x 10.5 cm). Lyena Barjansky Collection, book was published, it is highly likely that Brandt would have in Paris. protagonist in Brandt’s 1939 Picture Post article “The Perfect seen Brassaï’s photographs based on the photographers’ mutual Parlourmaid,” in which this self-portrait appears. Houk Gallery, New York courtesy of Pryor Dodge 15 Brandt, Camera in London, 13. acquaintances in Paris. 18 Mark Haworth-Booth, “The English at Home,” in Bill Brandt: 16 Richard Howells, “Self Portrait: The Sense of Self in British 12 See Anne Wilkes Tucker, “Brassaï: Man of the World” in Behind the Camera, Photographs 1928–1983, 12. Documentary Photography,” in National Identities 4, no. 2 Brassaï: The Eye of Paris (Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1998), (2002): 104. 61–63, for a detailed comparison of Brandt and Brassaï.

13 Many of Brassaï’s prints from this era are 11-by-14 inches, with a glossy, ferrotyped surface. The vast majority of Brandt’s prints—before and after the war—are on 8-by-10-inch semi-gloss paper, but there are a significant number of early prints that echo the surface and size of Brassaï’s work.

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Sanctuary that appeared opposite it. One below (p. 45). The apparently hypnotic House” (at the celebrated Glyndebourne), and people) and the private existence of contem­porary reviewer noted: “It is power of Brandt’s flash in prosaic settings appeared the following week. However these pictures (unpublished for more than because each scene or figure has interested across class boundaries suggests the ways in auspicious this may have seemed to Brandt, a decade) suggest that he found it difficult him purely for itself that his pictures are so which he was adapting the surrealist lessons regular assignments (or, more commonly to resist the artistic potential he sensed in good and carry such implications. He does he had learned in Paris to his own purposes. in the 1930s, the use of his existing pictures) these subjects. not only set out to illustrate the contrast Despite the book’s positive critical were elusive. Hopkinson may have imme- ­ The publication of Brandt’s second between rich and poor; he takes his reception, The English at Home was far from diately­ recognized the uniqueness of book, A Night in London, in June 1938 pictures and the contrast is there. The best a commercial success.21 Brandt continued to Brandt’s achievement, but while Lorant was cemented his artistic alliance with the city. of them are—what can one call them?— receive a modest allowance from his in charge, he had his own favorites.24 The distinctively neutral sensibility pictorial epigrams, surprisingly, vividly, parents, but magazine work held the key to Despite, or perhaps thanks to, the dearth of remained consistent with his earlier work, exactly, seen.”19 increased financial stability.I t was Tom assignments, Brandt was able to continue although here the sequence of pictures In all subsequent books and, indeed, Hopkinson, the editor of Picture Post and his pursuit of the English and to concen­ unfolds chronologically, beginning with in the vast majority of his prints, Brandt’s Lilliput magazines throughout the 1940s, trate his attention on his next book. twilight and ending just after dawn.I t is work is reproduced almost exclusively in a who wrote the first profile of Brandt in In 1937, Brandt ventured to the a signal of Brandt’s growing confidence as slightly vertical, rectangular format. But at 1942, which begins with his description of industrial towns of Northern England, an an artist (and the parallel confidence of his this early stage, Brandt was still consider­ meeting the artist for the first time: area that had been severely impacted by publishers) that he could capture the ing a variety of presentation methods— the Depression. He left no record of what nocturnal life of London as Brassaï had the examples of the jumble of pictures on Some time in the spring of 1936 a young man motivated him to travel there, nor does he done in Paris. There were several unique the pages of Eva’s and Lyena’s albums, as came into the office where I was working. He appear to have been on assignment. At aspects of Brandt’s book, most notably his well as on the pages of several popular was tall and slim, sunburned, with golden hair first glance, the images that resulted from ability to weave together images from German, French, and British weekly brushed back. He had a rather narrow mouth his trip can be taken as an investigation of across the social spectrum. Brassaï’s illustrated magazines being fresh in his with thin lips, long forehead and chin, and very the deep poverty and dire conditions that particular talent for capturing illicit, mind. Almost a quarter of the plates clear blue eyes. He wore a grey flannel suit, had attracted the attention of a number marginalized, or unconventional activity present strong horizontal rectangles and had a voice as loud as a moth, and the gentlest of social reformers, and indeed, Brandt stands in stark contrast to the normalcy of are printed sideways to maximize the manner to be found outside a nunnery. made a few great pictures that bear Brandt’s imagery—the routines of the Altogether, he did not seem a very likely image size on the page, requiring the unequivocal witness to the devastating upper and working classes unfold across person to be given a job on a weekly picture viewer to flip the book in order to look at unemployment that plagued the region at the pages (facing, bottom). And yet despite paper. However, he carried under his arm a the picture in its proper orientation.20 the time (see pp. 74–75). But there is a the absorbing impression these pictures book, and in the book were photographs taken The pictures are paired, most often subtle ambiguity to many of his images as give of Brandt roaming through the by himself. They were remarkable photographs, well: the social implications inherent in London night and capturing his subjects to elaborate a narrative sequence, although and they showed more sharply than I had there are a handful that might be charac­ ever seen before how a human eye and a piece the blackened structures of the industrial unaware, a signifi­cant number of the terized as describing the class contrasts of mechanism can combine, not so much to landscape or even the photo­graphs of the images feature his family members playing that provide the backdrop for the book record the world as to impose a particular domestic lives of the miners (both of particular roles: the apparent affair taking (right, top). Despite Brandt’s success in vision of the world upon it.22 which find parallels with the pictures he place in Soho Bedroom (1934; p. 53) or the descri­bing his titular subject, there is an air was making in London during the same ambiguous exchange in Street Scene, London of strangeness that persists throughout, The office in whichH opkinson was period) are balanced against or even (1936; p. 56) are all staged for Brandt’s 25 such as in his rendering of the Billingsgate working in 1936 was of Weekly Illustrated, eclipsed by an obvious aesthetic intent. It camera. This artifice was irrele­vant for porter with an enormous fish balanced the magazine founded two years prior by would be unfair to suggest that Brandt was Brandt so long as the pictures rang true, nonchalantly atop his head (p. 65), or the the innovative Hungarian-born publisher indifferent to the circumstan­ces before his which they did without exception. children’s party in Kensington, where the Stefan Lorant.23 Brandt’s first picture in camera, and yet in the face of such a major There are no horizontal photo­ balloons suspended in midair act as Weekly Illustrated was published on May social issue, the recurring visual leitmotifs graphs in A Night in London, only gently surrogates­ for the privileged innocents 23, 1936; his first story, “Opera in a Country (soot-covered surfaces of both buildings vertical rectangles, which hints that Brandt

19 G. W. Stonier, “Ourselves in Photograph,” New Statesman, (top) Plates 39 and 40 from The English at Home, 1936 21 Brandt reminisced with Brian Batsford in 1978 that even at a 24 Felix Man (born Hans Baumann) and Kurt Hutton (born Kurt 25 Mark Haworth-Booth identifies many of these individuals in February 29, 1936: 318; quoted in Delany, 110. price of five shillings, it was soon remaindered. His letter is quoted Hübschmann) had both worked for Lorant in Munich and arrived in Bill Brandt: Behind the Camera, p. 26. See also Delaney, pp. 112–3, (bottom) Plates 4 and 5 from A Night in London, 1938 in Mark-Haworth Booth, Bill Brandt: Behind the Camera, London not long after him, at which time they anglicized their 120, 128–9. 20 This had been the same solution used to include Atget’s Photographs 1928–1983, 13. names to help obtain assignments—like Brandt, understandably horizontal images in Atget: Photographe de Paris, although in that wanting to minimize their affiliation with Germany. instance the trim size was significantly more generous. 22 Tom Hopkinson, “Bill Brandt—Photographer,” Lilliput 11, no. 2 (August 1942), 130.

23 Weekly Illustrated was the first of three magazines founded in London by Lorant, the other two being Lilliput (June 1937) and Picture Post (October 1, 1938). By June 1940, Lorant had moved to the United States, and Hopkinson succeeded him as editor at Picture Post and Lilliput.

MEISTER 84 85

For decades now, two iconic series of work have stood as synonymous with Bill Brandt’s activity during World War II: his photographs of London by moonlight dur- ing the Blackout and of makeshift underground shelters during the Blitz. The reality is that his wartime production was much more varied, which is key to understanding the overall evolution of Brandt’s work. By 1939, Brandt could expect regular assign- ments from the illustrated press, although his editors also drew liberally from work he had pursued independently. Lilliput published a sequence of Brandt’s pictures of London during the Blackout in December 1939, and again in August 1942.1 Brandt described the appeal of this nocturnal work: “Night photography is often a very leisurely way of taking pictures. The main thing you need is patience. But you also have plenty of time. After midnight, in particular, there is hardly anybody about, you can do almost anything without being disturbed. There are rarely any watchers, and you are seldom troubled even by passing cars. Night photography can indeed be a quiet and pleasurable sort of game.”2 Brandt was commissioned by the British Ministry of Information to take pictures of the improvised shelters that had appeared in the wake of the first German air raids on London in September 1940. In early November, Brandt pho- tographed in Tube stations, wine cellars, shop basements, and crypts—anywhere Londoners sought protection. This project was the antithesis of his moonlit noc- turnes, using artificial lighting to document crowded, cramped spaces. The artist Henry Moore had received a similar commission, and his drawings appeared oppo- site several of Brandt’s photographs in Lilliput.3 Moore’s and Brandt’s shelter pictures were also included in the exhibition Britain at War, which was presented at MoMA from May to September 1941.4 Virtually every retrospective consideration of Brandt’s work distills his wartime activity to these two bodies of work, a decision initially made by Brandt himself in his first retrospective book, Shadow of Light (1966). The remainder of the plates in this section, considered with the stories listed and reproduced on pages 195–203, tell a decidedly more complicated story: almost without exception these photographs were made for Lilliput, Picture Post, or Harper’s Bazaar. Brandt, like every inhabitant of London, was profoundly changed by the war, and the same was true of the city itself. He used these assignments to expand his oeuvre: through his portrait commissions and his photographs of the British landscape, in particular, he found 3 new ways to position himself as a British photographer.

1 The first appeared in “Blackout in London,” Lilliput 5, no. 6 (December 1939): 551–8; followed by “London by Moonlight,” Lilliput 11, no. 2 (August 1942): 131–40. World War II 2 Bill Brandt, “Pictures by Night,” in L. A. Mannheim, ed., The Rollei Way: The Rolleiflex and Rolleicord Photographer’s Companion (London and New York: The Focal Press, 1952), 185; reprinted in Nigel Warburton, Bill Brandt: Selected Texts and Bibliography (Oxford, U.K.: Clio Press, 1993), 41.

3 “Shelter Pictures,” Lilliput 11, no. 6 (December 1942): 473–82.

4 Brandt’s work was unattributed, as were all other photographs in the exhibition.

Deserted Street in Bloomsbury. 1942 92 93

Crowded, Improvised Air-Raid Shelter in a Liverpool Street Tube Tunnel. 1940 Liverpool Street Underground Station Shelter. 1940 98 99

Bath—The Circus. 1942 Packaging Post for the War. c. 1942 Bombed Regency Staircase, Upper Brook Street, Mayfair. c. 1942 144 145

If it was Brandt’s images of London in the 1930s that established his reputation as a photographer, it was the series of nudes he made in the decades after the Second World War that solidified his reputation as an artist. The disembodied breasts, knees, and elbows are at once sensuous and surprisingly chaste, as if the female form were needed for its graphic beauty, its gender almost accidental. Lawrence Durrell de- scribed this quality when he wrote, “one forgets the human connotation as if one were reading a poem.”1 For all their flesh, these nudes are not about desire, although they flirt with fetish. There is an ambivalence that is typical of Brandt, concerned with neither passion, love, nor hate.2 Their position in the history of the genre is unique. Brandt made a handful of female nudes before Lilliput published his first in February 1942, but these adopt tropes that Man Ray (and others) had explored in the late 1920s. The earliest works that Brandt chose to include in his groundbreak- ing Perspective of Nudes (1961) date from 1945 and feature nudes in incongruously domestic interiors at twilight. With a large, wide-angle, fixed-focus mahogany-and- brass Kodak camera designed to inventory estates and crime scenes, Brandt placed his models in a Victorian wonderland, delighting in his camera’s ability to present the world in a way the eye could not see. He then moved closer—the space and the figures become more distorted, and one senses a disquieting proximity when one recalls these are, in fact, pictures of real women. Finally, in the late 1950s Brandt found that he could use his “modern” camera to achieve his desired effects on the rocky beaches of England and France.3 On the occasion of the retrospective he organized of Brandt’s work in 1969, John Szarkowski wrote of the nudes: “These pictures—at first view- ing, strange and contorted—reveal themselves finally as supremely [poised] and un- troubled works…. In photography only Edward Weston has made nudes of equal power. A comparison is instructive. The models in Weston’s pictures retain a degree of their identity; they remain, in part, specific women seen in the sunlight of specific fine mornings. Brandt’s late nudes in contrast seem to be no women and all women, as anonymous and as moving as a bleached and broken sculpture, fresh from the earth.”4 This reference to the sculptural quality of Brandt’s nudes is an apt one. The connection between Brandt and Henry Moore was first established by their shared fascination with sleeping figures in the makeshift underground shelters during the Blitz, and their friendship grew from there. Brandt photographed the sculptor more than any other artist, and the resonance between their biomorphic forms in two and 6 three dimensions enhances the appreciation of both artists’ work.

1 Lawrence Durrell, preface to Perspective of Nudes by Bill Brandt (London: The Bodley Head; New York: Amphoto, 1961), 5.

2 Brandt’s late nudes, made between 1977 and 1980, which Nudes are not included here, might be considered an exception. 3 In Perspective of Nudes, Brandt arranges his images into six loosely thematic suites, but with few exceptions, his work from this fifteen-year period can be distilled into the three groups described here.

4 John Szarkowski, “Bill Brandt,” in The Museum of Modern Art Members Newsletter, Fall 1969, n.p. This piece was republished along with sixteen photographs chosen by Brandt in Album, no. 1 (February 1970): 12–13.

Hampstead, London. 1945 146 147

Micheldever, Hampshire. 1948 Nude. 1953 162 163

Campden Hill, London. 1958 London. 1952 180 181

Taxo d’Aval, France. 1958 Seaford, East Sussex Coast. 1957 190 191 Additive wash graphite porous pointed pen Techniques Additive techniques are marks added to the surface of the photograph to modify the image. Marks can be added with a brush, graphite, or porous pointed pen. They can be dabs or spots, linear or in patches of black, blue, white, or gray. Some inks or dyes may fade over time, rendering the retouched area more visible than when the marks were first applied. Washes were a particularly favorite medium for Brandt, found on forty percent of the prints examined at MoMA; he employed graphite and opaque black wash white gouache wash (with abrasion and scratch) graphite porous pointed pen (with abrasion) porous pointed pen as well. Detail of Giant’s Causeway, Antrim (1946; p. 138). Detail of Jean Dubuffet (1960, p. 121, right). The field Detail of Losing at the Horse Races, Auteuil, Paris Detail of Barmaid at the Crooked Billet, Tower Hill. Detail of Jean Dubuffet. The field of view is 3 cm x The field of view shown is 2.4 mm x 2.4 mm of view is 6 cm x 6 cm (1932, p. 34). The field of view is 8 mm x 8 mm The field of view is 4 cm x 4 cm 3 cm

Opaque washes were frequently used by Brandt. In later years Brandt expanded his tool kit to He added heavily pigmented black washes, either include porous pointed pen, also known as felt- a gouache or an opaquing medium specifically tip marker. Marketed to artists as early as 1946,13 formulated for use on photographs, to create these pens with their semi-transparent color dense shadows. In a detail of Giant’s Causeway, were used to similar effect as a wash but were Antrim, for example, Brandt has applied the black remarkably convenient, which likely appealed to wash to reinforce the checkerboard pattern of Brandt, in addition to their ready adherence the rock formations, in some areas creating to the water-resistant emulsion. Identifiable in shadows where there were none. In Barmaid at the specular light by its iridescence and even, fluid Crooked Billet, Tower Hill, he used several patches line, the dye in these ubiquitous pens may of black wash to add depth and uniformity to the have faded or shifted over time, now appearing shadowy background. He applied the passages light blue in color. thickly, so much so that brushstrokes can be seen by the naked eye upon close inspection, while particles of pigment are visible as sandy texture under magnification. In addition to black washes, opaque black wash transparent wash graphite a white opaque wash could hide dark spots, or it Detail of Barmaid at the Crooked Billet, Tower Hill Detail of Vastérival Beach, Normandy (1954, p. 178). Detail of Vastérival Beach, Normandy. The field of could add highlights to a darker area. In Jean (1939; p. 54). The field of view is 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm The field of view is 1.7 cm x 1.7 cm view is 1 cm x 1 cm Dubuffet, Brandt applied white gouache to the iris and whites of the eye to lighten and brighten the details. The photographer employed more transparent Readily available and easy to use, graphite is sold washes as well, either by thinning the black wash in grades of hardness. Brandt used this medium or using neural-toned watercolors, which allowed in two ways: to outline or enhance compositional him to approximate mid-tones or gradations elements in sharp, clean lines, such as the eye­brows of tone. In Vastérival Beach, Normandy, Brandt and facial features of the title subject in Barmaid 13 Margaret Holben Ellis, “The Porous Pointed Pen as Artistic used the wash to further delineate an area of at the Crooked Billet, or applied in a circular Medium,” in Shelia Fairbrass, ed., The Institute of Paper Conservation: rocks, while in Losing at the Horse Races, Auteuil, motion to create mid-tone shadows, such as in the Conference Papers, Manchester 1992 (London: Institute of Paper Paris, he dabbed on a darker wash to greatly background of Vastérival Beach, where the marks Conservation, 1992), 11–18. enhance a mustache and beard. mimic the rounded composition of the rocks. This style of marking was cited in the instructional guides of the day alongside cross-hatching and parallel linear marks.

illustrated glossary 194 195

Bill Brandt’s increasingly regular contri­ taken in and around London would national and former German resident, was butions to illustrated publications during blossom during the war years into denied British citizenship and emigrated the years that spanned World War II assignment-driven work, undertaken to the United States. With Lilliput’s niche as proved to be highly productive and primarily for Lilliput, Picture Post, and a sophisticated cultural magazine and generative for his career. While Brandt’s Harper’s Bazaar, that would become the Picture Post’s strong populist bent, Brandt’s wartime work has become synonymous impetus for Brandt to expand his subject involvement with both publications with his images of London during the matter and to begin photographing, in allowed him to focus on a broad range of Blackout and the Blitz, his output during earnest, landscapes, architecture, portraits, subjects in photographs that would be seen these years was in fact much more diverse and nudes. by two distinct audi­en­ces. Hopkinson, in and would lay the groundwork for the Lilliput and Picture Post were both parti­cular, regarded Brandt as a photog­ wide range of genres he would explore in founded by the visionary publisher Stefan rapher of singular talent, and Brandt was the decades that followed. Lorant, who was lauded for his contri­ given the opportunity­ to photograph the Artists frequently contributed to butions to modern photojournalism and, people and places around the United illustrated publications during the early specifically, for his emphasis on picture Kingdom as he saw fit, in addition to his half of the twentieth century, a particularly essays and intuitive layouts and designs, a war-specific assignments. common practice among the modernist skill he honed in Munich during his tenure The photo-stories reproduced below, photographers working on the continent; as the editor of Münchner Illustrierte organized chronologically, suggest the such an opportunity could offer an artist a Zeitung. Lorant worked briefly as the breadth of Brandt’s activity leading up to platform and an audience, as well as a founding editor of Weekly Illustrated and throughout the war, complemented source of income. While Brandt had a before laun­ching Lilliput (in July 1937) and by citations for major articles not illustra­ photograph published as early as May 1932 Picture Post (with Edward G. Hulton, on ted. Unless relevant to his postwar practice, in the German magazine Der Querschnitt, October 1, 1938). Tom Hopkinson, who individual pictures or stories consisting with others published in 1934 in Weekly first met Brandt in 1936 while working of previously published material are not Illustrated and Minotaure, it was not until as an assistant editor at Weekly Illustrated, mentioned. Images reproduced as plates the late 1930s that he began to carve out a followed Lorant to Lilliput in 1938; he are noted with the page number on which place for himself within the field.W hat assumed the position of editor there in they appear. began as a chance to publish photographs July 1940 when Lorant, a Hungarian

Gustav Doré’s for the publication. The London Rediscovered opening image in Lilliput is a by Bill Brandt in 1938 slightly cropped version of verve Rainswept Roofs (p. 39), and the last is Evening in Kenwood January–March 1939: 107–14 (p. 67). Brandt’s first article Three of Brandt’s photo­ for Lilliput, “London Night,” graphs are paired with Doré appeared in June 1938 and engravings from the 1870s. featured eight photographs, In May 1939, Lilliput would seven of which were expand this concept to inclu­ded his collection include seven pairings, calling A Night in London, which the story “Unchanging apeared that same year. London,” Brandt’s second

Bill Brandt’s Published Photo-Stories 1939–1945

Sarah Hermanson Meister and Marley Blue Lewis p. 47

MEISTER 196 197

Day in the Life of an Artist’s Model Daybreak at the Enough of All This! Twenty-Four Hours in picture post Crystal Palace picture post Piccadilly Circus January 28, 1939: 34–37 picture post April 1, 1939: 54–57 lilliput February 11, 1939: 54–55 September 1939: 233–40 The first of fourPicture Post Billet pub in Stepney (see pp. supplied variants of what This story contains images “Day in the Life of…” fea­tures 54–55 for two unpublished would come to be his A series of eight by Brandt of children Here Lilliput adopts the for Brandt. The “surrealist pictures from this story); and best-known images to Picture photographs taken in the living in squalor and dire chronoglogical sequencing commercial artist,” whom we “The Perfect Parlourmaid” Post, although this was gardens of the Crystal con­di­tions in London’s of A Night in London from see painting the artist’s (July 29, 1939), which not the case with Lilliput. Palace. In these pictures, East End neighborhood, the previous year, following model, is Rolf Brandt, Bill’s followed Pratt, the parlor­ Brandt experimented with illustrating an article about a formula that Picture Post brother. This story would be maid in the home of Brandt’s perspective and cropping rent strikes and poverty. It had used. followed by “Nippy. The uncle. Variant images from to create a surreal effect marks one of Brandt’s last Story of Her Day...” (March 4, the feature on Pratt appear for the overgrown and social critiques published 1939) (a “nippy” being a on pages 46, 47, and 48; decaying statues. before Britain declared war nickname for waitresses who Brandt’s self-portrait with on Germany, after which worked in J. Lyons & Co.– Pratt, the final image in the Picture Post maintained a brand tea houses around article, is on page 17. Perhaps stalwart position focused England); “A Barmaid’s Day” wanting to retain control on publishing nation­alistic, (April 8, 1939), featuring Alice, over images he deemed more morale-boosting stories the barmaid at the Crooked successful, Brandt frequently on the home front.

Blackout in London England at War: Autumn in a lilliput Life Goes On in the Dark Forgotten Wood December 1939: 551–58 life lilliput January 1, 1940: 40–41 October 1940: 343–45 For Brandt’s first war appears with four street assignment,­ he was lights shining brightly, Brandt’s first photo-story in Three early landscape photo-­ commissioned by Lilliput to underscoring Brandt’s an American publication; graphs taken by Brandt, and document the “spirit of the willingness to adapt his four of the images from his only photo-story for blackout” in London with printing from a particular “Blackout in London” are Lilliput in 1940, although a this photo-story of eight negative; a daytime view of reproduced (at left, the first, number of his images were cityscapes. A number of the the same street appears sixth, seventh, and eighth published singly. images published in this on page 63. pages). issue have since become some of Brandt’s most iconic p. 86 p. 88 photo­graphs. In the first edition of Brandt’s retro­ spective collection, Shadow of Light (1966),the second image from this story

Nightwalk … a dream Spring in the Park A Day on the River A Simple Story phantasy in photographs picture post picture post about a Girl coronet May 10, 1941: 18–21 July 12, 1941: 12–15 lilliput January 1941: 47–54 September 1941: 235–42

The female model for this A love story narrated by photo essay is Marjorie I Look at Bournemouth What Are All These eight photographs and Beckett, Brandt’s companion accompa­nying text about a by J. B. Priestley Children Laughing At? for more than thirty years; young woman seeking an the bearded man is Rolf picture post picture post adventure who happens to Brandt. Here, Brandt June 21, 1941: 20–23 August 23, 1941: 16–17 meet a young soldier while attempts to depict one walking in a local park. woman’s dreams throughout An unusually senti­mental the course of a night. While story by Brandt, perhaps much of Brandt’s work This Was the War-Time explained by the fact that has a dreamlike quality and Derby! the idea originated not with surrealist undertones, in no picture post him but with Lilliput work following this story July 5, 1941: 13–17 assistant editor Kaye Webb. would Brandt attempt such a literal representation.

published photo-stories 206 207

Books by the The Land: Twentieth Century Books about Cheatle, Zelda, and Adam Lowe, Bill Brandt: Photographs Photo Credits Courtesy Vince Aletti © 2013 Hearst Artist Landscape Photographs Selected the Artist eds. Bill Brandt: The Assemblages. 1932–1957 and Books. London: Magazines; photography by David Allison: pages 29, 202–3 (bottom). by Bill Brandt. Edited by Mark Kyoto, Japan: Kyoto Shoin, 1993. Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2008. All works by Bill Brandt are © 2013 . Introduction Haworth-Booth. Texts by . Introduction by Bill Brandt Archive Ltd. The English at Home Bill Brandt Courtesy David Dechman and Michel by Raymond Mortimer. London: Jonathan Williams, Aaron Scharf, Norman Hall. New York and Warburton, Nigel, ed. Bill Huxley-Parlour, Giles, ed. Bill Unless listed below, photographs of Mecure; photography by David Allison: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1936. and Keith Critchlow. London: London: Marlborough, 1976. Brandt: Selected Texts and Brandt. Text by David Wootton. works of art reproduced in this volume pages 43, 119, 120 (left), 125, 146, 150, The Gordon Fraser Gallery Bibliography. Oxford, United London: Chris Beetles Ltd., have been provided by the owners or 153 (right), 155–58, 159 (right), 162–64, 172–73, 175 (right), 176–77. A Night in London. Introduction Ltd., 1975; New York: Da Capo Bill Brandt: A Retrospective Kingdom: Clio Press, 1993. 2009. custodians of the works, who are by James Bone. London: Press, 1976. Exhibition. Foreword by Valerie identified in the captions or in the list Courtesy Pryor Dodge; photography . Introduction by Ian of plates. Country Life; New York: Charles Lloyd and introduction by Bill Brandt by David Allison: pages 14, 17 (right). Scribner’s Sons, 1938. Published Shadow of Light, second edition. David Mellor. Bath, United Jeffrey. Paris: Centre nationale Individual works of art appearing here as Londres de Nuit, with intro­- Original introduction by Cyril Kingdom: The Royal de la photographie/Photo Poche, may be protected by copyright in the Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery/Bill duction by André Lejard, Paris: Connolly with additional Photographic Society, National 1994 (French edition); New York: United States or elsewhere and may Brandt Archive; photography by David Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1938. introduction by Mark Haworth- Centre of Photography, 1981. Thames and Hudson/Photofile, not be reproduced without the Allison: pages 17 (left), 25, 38, 40, 42, Booth. London: The Gordon 2007 (English edition); Tokyo: permission of the rights holders. In 44–45, 50, 51 (left), 57–60, 62–63, 65, reproducing the images contained in 68, 72–74, 76, 81–83, 86–88, 90–91, 93, Sogensha Japan, 2012 (Japanese Camera in London. Introduction Fraser Gallery Ltd.; New York: Bill Brandt. Introduction and this publication, the Museum obtained 97–98, 104 (left), 105 (left), 110–12, 115, by Bill Brandt and text by Da Capo Press, 1977. Published afterword by Mark Haworth- edition). the permission of the rights holder 124, 127–29, 134–35, 142, 152, 159 (left). Norah Wilson. London: The as Ombre de Lumière, Paris: Booth. Milan: Gruppo Editoriale whenever possible. Should the Focal Press, 1948. Chêne, 1977. Fabbri S.P.A., 1982 (Italian Brandt: The Photography of Museum have been unable to locate a Courtesy Michael Mattis; photography rights holder, notwithstanding good- edition); Paris: Union des Bill Brandt. Foreword by David by David Smith: pages 36, 80, 102. faith efforts, it requests that any Literary Britain. Introduction by Bill Brandt: Nudes 1945–1980. Editions Modernes, 1984 (French Hockney and essays by Bill Jay contact information concerning such John Hayward. London: Cassell Introduction by Michael Hiley. edition). and Nigel Warburton. London: rights holders be forwarded, so that Digital images © 2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image Source: Art and Company Ltd., 1951. London: The Gordon Fraser Thames and Hudson; New York: they may be contacted for future editions. Resource, NY: pages 39, 100, 151. Gallery Ltd.; Boston: The New Sers, Philippe, ed. Atelier Man Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Perspective of Nudes. Preface by York Graphic Society/Little, Ray 1920–1935: Berenice Abbott, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Lawrence Durrell and intro- Brown and Company, 1980. Jacques-André Boiffard, Bill Brandt Icons. Text by Nigel Imaging and Visual Resources: page 126; duc­tion by Chapman Mortimer. Brandt, Lee Miller. Essay by Warburton. London: Bill Brandt photography by David Allison: pages 35, 37, 49, 51 (right), 61, 64, 85, 94, 96, 98 London: The Bodley Head; New Bill Brandt: Portraits. Roméo Martinez. Paris: Centre Archive, 2004. (right), 99, 104 (right), 109, 114, 116, York: Amphoto, 1961. Published Introduction by Alan Ross. Georges Pompidou, 1982. 122–23, 136, 138, 143, 154, 165, 180; as Perspectives sur le Nu, Paris: London: The Gordon Fraser Brandt Nudes: A New Perspective. photography by Peter Butler: pages Les Éditions Prisma, 1961. Gallery Ltd.; Austin: University Bill Brandt: Behind the Camera, Original preface 195–203 (except as indicated of Texas Press, 1982. Photographs 1928–1983. by Lawrence Durrell from elsewhere here); photography by Thomas Griesel: pages 15, 18, 23, 26, 34, Shadow of Light: A Collection Text by Mark Haworth-Booth Perspective of Nudes with 46, 52, 54, 92, 95, 103, 121, 145, 147, 170, of Photographs from 1931 London in the Thirties: Bill and David Mellor. Oxford, United additional­ text by Mark 178; photography by James Mathews: to the Present, first edition. Brandt. Introduction by Mark Kingdom: Phaidon; New York: Haworth-Booth. London: Bill page 205 (right); photography by Soichi Introduction by Cyril Connolly Haworth-Booth. London: Aperture, 1985. Brandt Archive, 2004 (limited Sunami: pages 204, 205 (left); photography by John Wronn: pages 33, and notes by Marjorie Beckett. edition); London: Thames and The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd., 41, 48, 53, 55–56, 67, 69, 71, 75, 77–79, London: The Bodley Head; 1983; New York: Pantheon Bill Brandt: Vintage Photographs. Hudson, 2012 (trade edition). 89, 106, 113, 115 (right), 117–18, 120 (right), New York: The Viking Press, Books, 1984. Introduction by David Travis. 131–33, 137, 139, 140–41, 149, 153 (left), 1966. Published as Ombres Chicago, Illinois: Edwynn Houk Delany, Paul. Bill Brandt: A Life. 160–61, 166–69, 171, 174, 175 (left), 177, 179, 181. d’une Île: Une collection de Literary Britain, second edition. Gallery, 1985. Stanford, California: Stanford photographies de 1931 à nos jours, Foreword by Sir Roy Strong and University Press, 2004. Courtesy Robert Stevens; photography with introduction by Michel original introduction by John Roegiers, Patrick. Bill Brandt: by David Allison: pages 200, 201 (top). Butor, Paris: Éditions le Hayward with additional text by Essai. Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1990. James, Peter, and Richard Sadler. Bélier-Prisma, 1966. Tom Hopkinson and afterword Homes Fit for Heroes: Photographs by Mark Haworth-Booth. Jeffrey, Ian, ed. Bill Brandt: by Bill Brandt, 1939–1943. London: Victoria and Albert Photographs, 1928–1983. London: Stockport, United Kingdom: Museum, in association with Thames and Hudson, in Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2004. Hurtwood Press, 1984. association with the Barbican Art Gallery, 1993.

Selected Bibliography

All books listed in chronological order

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