Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt (1904 – 1983) had a far-reaching influence on the history and trajectory of British photography. A student of artist Man Ray, he maintained a Surrealist approach to his work throughout his career, seeking out the uncanny within the mundane. His subject matter was diverse and exploratory. Brandt began a searing documentary of British society in 1933 when this type of photography was uncommon. After the end of World War II his documentary work gave way to his studies of the human form photographed within the landscape – mainly the Sussex coastline – and innovative female nudes using wide-angle lenses and distortion.