Bill Brandt

Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British society for such magazines as Lilliput and Picture Post; later he made distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes.

He documented the 1936 Jarrow March, then he travelled to the northeast of England, to capture the effects of the 1930s depression on the industrial landscape of the United Kingdom.

He then focused predominantly on recording domestic scenes of miners in Northumberland, and then the urban landscape of Halifax, West Yorkshire, of which he later said, in a rare late career interview, as being "absolutely extraordinary; a real dream town – I'd never seen anything like it before.

[5] During World War II Brandt concentrated on many subjects – as can be seen in his Camera in London (1948) but excelled in portraiture and landscape.

His major books from the post-war period are Literary Britain (1951), and Perspective of Nudes (1961), followed by a compilation of his best work, Shadow of Light (1966).

[6] In 2010, an English Heritage blue plaque for Brandt was erected in London at 4 Airlie Gardens, Kensington, W8.