Timeline
1904
Brandt's parents
Bill Brandt was actually born in Hamburg to comfortably off German parents of Russian descent. He was one of four brothers. His eldest brother, Walter, was an aviator [for the Allies] but was killed in action in WWII. His closest brother, Rolf became an illustrator and eventually emigrated to London. His childhood years were spent mostly in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and Davos, Switzerland.
1920
Brandt's dark days
Brandt contracted tuberculosis (TB) as a young man of 16, and as was the practice in those dark days, was packed off to a sanitarium in Davos, Switzerland to recover until he was 22 years old.
1926
Freedom and a big trip to Vienna
He was finally pronounced cured and left the sanitarium to follow his brother Rolf to the bright lights of Vienna. He engineered an introduction to the wealthy Jewish educator and socialite Dr. Eugenie Schwarzwald (left), who decided that it was time for Brandt to find a job. Legend has it that as she ticked off a number of possibilities on her fingers, Brandt stopped her at photography. Schwarzwald arranged work in a portrait studio owned by her friend Greta Kolliner. Pictured is Dr. Eugenie Schwarzwald (b.1872 - d.1940-left image)
1928
The Breakthrough
Ezra Pound (left), the American poet, visited the Schwarzwalds. Bill Brandt was lucky enough to take is portrait which strangely remained unexhibited and unpublished until 1982. The portrait was shown to Ezra and was greatly admired by the famous poet. As a result, Ezra immediately saw to it that Brandt was introduced to the soon to be great surrealist painter and photographer, Man Ray.
1929
Paris center of European arts
Brandt left Vienna for Paris and worked for approximately 3 months in Man Ray's studio. He apparently received little instruction from Man Ray, but gained a new excitement about photography and about the world as well from the exposure. Brandt also assimilated the Parisian art of the period, such as the films of England inspired Brandt to photograph London and his earliest was one of the Caledonian Market in North London. He also produced some largely unseen images of the Paris flea market. (Cover of Verve, leading magazine of the time)
1932
Brandt moves to London
Brandt had by now met Eva, the first of his three wives. He travelled with her to Barcelona on a whirlwind romance and married in London in 1932. His home in Belsize Park, North London is an area renowned for intellectuals and artists. Typically, Brandt set up the darkroom in his small kitchen. (Spanish Beggar Barcelona, 1932)
1934
Brassai
Becomes friends in Paris with Transylvanian photographer Brassai, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. Indeed, many of Brandt's photographs echo Brasssai's work during the war years and they both contributed to the same magazines, such as Minotaure and Verve in Paris and Picture Post and Lilliput in London. (Left, La prostituée bijou, Brassai 1932)
1935
Finally published
By this time he had enough material to publish his first book, The English at Home. Sadly, at the time the book was not a publishing success and was remaindered.
1936
An English connection
Brandt visits the beaches in Normandy with Eva and meets the painter. Braque. Back in London, Brandt also met Stefan Lorant, who as a refugee from the Nazis had started the British magazine Weekly Illustrated. In a short meeting in February, Brandt's potential was seen by both Lorant and by Tom Hopkinson (left), who was at that time the assistant editor.
1938
Romantic cities
At this time, Brandt's friend Brassai was roaming the streets of Paris taking pictures of the beautiful city in the dark, as well as some of the seedy brothels. These pictures came out in a book titled Paris by Night. Brandt echoed this but with a more sinister take in his book A NIght in London.
1940
The Blitz
It was extraordinary for a photographer of German extraction to be allowed to be so involed in the war effort, and in 1940 he started to photograph the blackout and in September 1940 was asked by the War Office to record the Blitz, in which Londoners sheltered from German air raids in Underground stations. During the Blitz two million houses were destroyed and 60,000
1941
A love affair with England continues
The National Buildings Record asked him to photograph endangered buildings around the country. Citizen Kane, one of the most influential films for Brandt, premiered in New York, although Brandt is unlikely to have seen it until later in the year.
1945
A surrealist emerges
A great influence on Brandt, British film director Alfred Hitchcock made 'Spellbound' for which Salvador Dalí designed a surreal dream sequence. This may have been somewhat of an influence as Brandt also produced his own dream sequence, Nightwalk - A Phantasm, around this time.
1946
Magazine work
Brandt began his postwar portrait work with Lilliput and Picture Post and started photographing notable British artists, continuing his work in the 1950's with a series of portraits of international artists for USA's Harper's Bazaar.
1949
Camera in London was published, collecting his pictures from the 1930's and 1940's and adding Brandt's own essays on photography.
1950
Time for a change of genre
By this time landscape photography was his new passion. Some of his best was published in Literary Britain in 1951. Brandt scoured the country for houses of major British literary figures. The nude was increasingly taking up his time. In a fusion of literary landscape and nude, Brandt concentrated on a series of outdoor nudes taken on the beaches of Normandy and Sussex during the 1950s.
1961
The nudes are finally published
Brandt's monolithic series of nudes were finally published in Perspective of Nudes, both in London and New York. Brandt's nudes also appear in his book Shadow of Light, a retrospective survey of the different phases of his career. For both editions of the book Brandt printed older and newer photographs alike in a distinctively stark, high-contrast style that eliminates most soft, gray details, a style that was to become his signature.
1969
American triumph
New York City's Museum of Modern Art, under the direction of Edward Steichen, and arranged by John Szarkowski, presented Brandt's first retrospective containing 124 prints specially made for exhibit. Reviews were glowing.
1970
Time for a retrospective
The first Brandt Retrospective was launched at London's Hayward Gallery.
1972-6
Contemporary Master
Brandt joined the formidable Marlborough Gallery, who remained responsible for the international appreciation and sale of his work until his death. Marlborough Gallery's New York and London branches both mounted comprehensive solo shows of Brandt's work. Brandt continued to live and work in Kensington, London preparing a series of signed larger prints specifically for Marlborough Gallery collectors.
1978
Royal Designer for Industry
Brandt was named a Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts. It is awarded to people who have achieved 'sustained excellence in aesthetic and efficient design for industry' and only 200 people may hold the award at one time. This is still one of the only three that the Society has awarded for photography.
1979
Late kudos
The Royal Photographic Society, despite considering iteself at the forefront of photography for 150 years, decides on a rather belated effort to recognise Brandt when he was already almost 80 years old. An unimpressed Brandt was awarded the Silver Progress Medal.
1981
More credit from England
The Royal Photographic Society inaugurated its National Centre of Photography in Bath with an exhibition of 50 years of Brandt's pictures. He was already honored by a score of smaller shows in Paris, Stockholm, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, and Washington DC. Bill Brandt's photos are also considered important by London's Victoria and Albert Museum, New York's MoMA, Rochester's International Museum of Photography, and Paris' Bibliotheque Nationale, which all have major collections of his prints.
1983
Final days
Brandt, a diabetes sufferer for over 40 years, died in December after a short illness. He left Noya his wife and no children. His was an anonymous wanderer in Kensington's Holland Park and would frequently sit by the flower beds near the ruins of Holland House (left).
