Brandt Icons

by Bill Brandt (Photographer), Nigel Warburton (Foreword)

The year 2004 marks the centenary of the birth of Bill Brandt, one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century. Brandt Icons is published by the Bill Brandt Archive as its own centenary tribute to the work of a great eye. Containing 30 of Brandt's most famous images, it is a generous introduction to his multi-genre photojournalism, the nude, landscape, the urban scene, and the portrait. Whether Brandt was taking pictures of London streets during the blackout or sleepers in the Underground during the Blitz; coal miners or high society in pre-war Britain; moody, pared-down landscapes or elegant, abstracted nudes, he always imbued his photographs with strangeness and mystery, with a Surrealist touch, with rich connotations. Brandt Icons pulls the most memorable of his images together for a rich overview of an even richer life's work.

Genres: Photography

48 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Bill Brandt, born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt was an English photographer and photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British society for such magazines as Lilliput and Picture Post; later he made distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes. He is widely considered to be one of the most important English photographers of the 20th century.

Reviews

[HadiDee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to the Henry Moore and Francis Bacon exhibition (at the Art Gallery on Ontario) and was blown away by Bill Brandt photographs of London at Night and of people sleeping in underground stations during the WW2 air raids. This book is a good introduction to the wider scope of his work but while I liked the social portraits and the nudes, the war photographs are still the ones that have stayed with me.