"By temperament I am not unduly excitable and certainly not trigger happy . I think twice before I shoot and very often do not shoot at all. By professional standards I do not waste a lot of film; but by the standards of many of my colleagues I probably miss quite a few of my opportunities. Still, the things I am after are not in a hurry as a rule. I am a photographer of London."
-- Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt (1904-83) is widely considered England 's greatest 20th century photographer. After spending his formative years (1929-31) in Paris in the orbit of Man Ray, Brandt returned to London and developed a sophisticated form of photo-reportage. Like Shaw's Pygmalion or Altman's Gosford Park, Brandt's first book, The English At Home, dissected the nuances of Britain 's calcified class system. Extended essays on life in the coal-mining country to the north, and of London during the War, followed. After the War, Brandt renounced photojournalism and turned to the interior space, making surrealist nudes with a distorting police camera in work reminiscent of the paintings of his close friend Francis Bacon.
