This picture, first published in Brandt’s book A Night in London in 1938, recalls the work of the Hungarian-born photographer Brassaï, who had a particular talent for capturing illicit, marginalized, or unconventional activity in the lamplit streets of Paris. Many of Brandt’s pictures, however, feature his family members playing roles. Here he placed his brother and sister-in-law, Rolf and Esther Brandt, in front of a large poster. Using a nearby streetlight or perhaps his own floodlight, Brandt cast Rolf’s profile in melodramatic shadow. The artifice necessary to make a work was irrelevant for Brandt so long as he felt the picture rang true.

Gallery label from

Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light, March 6–August 12, 2013.

Medium Gelatin silver print
Dimensions 9 1/16 × 7 11/16" (23 × 19.6 cm)
Credit Purchase
Object number 613.2006
Department Photography

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Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt

British, born Germany. 1904–1983 104 works online

An English photographer of German birth, Bill Brandt traveled to Vienna in 1927 to see a lung specialist and then decided to stay and find work in a photography studio.

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