Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt was a British photographer and photojournalist. During the 1930s while working for the magazine as Lilliput and Picture Post, Brandt began to document the industrial cities and coal-mining districts of northern England, creating images that reveal the desperation of England’s industrial workers during the era. Like Walker Evans is also a key 'photo essay' photographer creating realist work and clear emotion.

One characteristic of Brandt's documentary photographs is his use of his family and friends to act out social roles. Thus, his brother Rolf and sister-in-law Ester are often to be found in Brandt's early books, for example, as an arguing couple in A Night In London (1936). Arguably because of this, Brandt's work become subjective and staged therefore tredding a fine line between documentary and fiction. However Brandt is portraying something that is real, couples fighting. To some extent all documentary work is stage, for example asking the subject to sit or look a certain way.

Brandt acts as influence in my project as 'Britishness' is such a niche term, its something that only a small population of the world can relate to and I think this is why I have chosen the project I am doing. To me it is trying to explain the unusual habits of the British such hanging out the washing or queuing. Trying to make the 'nothingness' of British society important. I think that anything that is photographed creates an amount of importance.

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