[SUMMER TASK] Artist Analysis - Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt is a British photographer who was born in Germany on May 2nd 1904 and died 10th of December 1983. He is assumed to have begun Photography in 1920. In 1931 he was a staff photographer for the home office where he documented the suffering of Londoners during the bombing raids. Night photography became one of Brandt's specialties, and used his families contacts in order to gain access to a variety of subjects. He would often distort his photos such as by adding contrasts to make the image seem darker, and would often take very surreal and abstract photographs. He would use perspective to distort what's in the foreground to create an image that's more visually unique. He is Britain's most successful and most inventive black and white photographer, and is most well known for his portraits and reportage work, but also has a passion for landscape photography. He is also known for social documentaries and distorted nudes.

Brandt considered  taking the photos to be a small part of the process, and would adjust his photos in a dark room. He could crop, dodge and burn and collage his photographs. He would also sometimes use a 'day for night' technique to change the time of day presented in the photograph. He would say that "he is not interested in rules and conventions" and that "its the result that counts."

In 1944 he used a 1931 Kodak with a wide angle lens to photograph crime scenes and was inspired by the cinematography of films such as Citizen Kane. He would sometimes spend years returning to places he knew he wanted to photograph just to get the right atmosphere.

I like how the lack of colour in this photo makes the setting seem unpleasant or gloomy which is uncommon for photos of beaches and other settings like this. The ear in the foreground gives the impression that the photographer is telling you to listen to the sounds and ambience of the beach. There are also no other people in the photograph which gives a sense of isolation and is telling you that the only sound that you would be able to hear is the ocean and the birds. 

Bill Brandt would often manipulate his photographs in ways such s adding contrast and lowering sauration. This photo seems to bean example of a photograph where the contrast have been raised. The photo makes it difficult to make out whether the line is a path or river, and so it creates a mystery, as whether its a path or river would change the entire feeling of the photo. Due to this the entire photo feels a bit strange and out of the ordinary.