Field of View: Bill Brandt

After basing my last research post on Joel Meyerorowitz, I thought the obvious choice for the next was his key inspiration, Robert Frank. But- since I've never been one for making things easy for myself- I considered    other influential photographers who made their mark shooting fine art Black and White photographs. I present to you, Mr. Bill Brandt.

Born in 1904, Brandt is famous for documenting British Working life using a trademark stark high contrast style. His work was often dark, epitomising Blake's 'dark satanic mills', a tag pinned to anything set against an industrial backdrop, "often achieved in the darkroom, by cropping under the enlarger and by emphasising tonal contrasts in printing" (1). Because of his use of cropping, Brandt is a good one to discuss in terms of field of view. The Victoria and Albert Museum (quoted above) offers a comparison of the full frame and cropped images of Hadrian's Wall taken in 1943:

Original full frame version

Cropped with heavy contrast added to accentuate one of the key contours of the rock face.

I prefer the original here, for I feel the latter compromises the level of detail and subtle tones of what is a pretty good landscape to start with (why fool around for the sake of the abstract?). That being said, this is a different story when considering Brandt's trademark urban scenes.

Newcastle, 1937.
Much of his work defies any kind of photographic technique, evoking age-old questions over what can be considered beautiful. This is hardly a photograph at all; more the harsh memory of light, or else a mere whisper from the darkness. Notice how the rich contrast highlights what is important in the scene: the train, the smog, the factories faded into the background. The is no foreground, but complete blackness.

Unknown Location, 1940s.
Now and again, in art, I think its important to try to appreciate the minimal. Nothing's happening here, but space itself; the dark empty space of the sky and the way the river intersects the mass of land in the foreground from right to left. It reminds me of some of Lowry's lake paintings, or others whose key motif is one of loneliness.

Fylde Farm, LS Lowry, 1953

Brandt also created abstract distortions of the human body, as he was equally conversant in making poetic images as he was the very real surroundings of working class Britain. 

Ear on the Beach, 1957.
Landscape or Portrait? Would it be fair to say what Brandt is doing here is merging the two? From my research it looks like he produced a series of images of parts of the human body shot amongst traditional landscapes, some more erotic than just an ear. In this we are able to appreciate the landscape in the background despite being drawn to the ear that subverts the image, prompting us to ask important question: "what does the sea sound like?" Maybe.

Camden Hill, 1949.
Here Brandt uses a slightly wider field f view to draw us into his sense of narrative, made more prominent by the silhouette of the chair in the foreground. However, the chair doesn't prove a distraction, for we know that- not only is there a figure in the background, but also that she is naked and looking forlorn. Why?

1)  http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/working-methods-bill-brandt/