Bill Brandt interview (from 1983)

[myotis]

I'm sure this must have been posted before. It's from the BBC Masters of Photography series in 1983.

However, I just rewatched it, and as well as Brandt making some my favourite photographs, I think this is one of my most favourite interviews with a photographer.

Even if you don't agree with everything Brandt says (or did, as a photographer) there are some gems of comments from Brandt here, and his humour makes a change from some of the very "earnest" interviews I've been listening to recently.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KuY0quBsk



For anyone interested in finding out more about Bill Brandt, both these links are worth reading.

Bill Brandt – Explore the Collections · V&A

Bill Brandt (1904 – 83) was one of the most influential British photographers of the 20th century, specialising in portraiture, landscape and the nude.

www.vam.ac.uk

Bill Brandt: Photography and the Printed Page

An online, open-access and peer-reviewed academic journal for research on all aspects of British art, architecture and visual culture.

www.britishartstudies.ac.uk

 

[droj]

I'd watched that video before but it was a good reminder. His quietude was revealing. There seems to be so much brash blather about these days.

 

[myotis]

His quietude was revealing.

Tom Hopkinson writing in the Lilliput magazine after meeting with Bill Brandt in 1936 wrote this about him

"He wore a grey flannel suit, had a voice as loud as a moth, and the gentlest manner to be found outside a nunnery. Altogether he did not seem a very likely person to be given a job on a weekly picture paper "

Which given the date I am assuming was Weekly Illustrated.