Its interesting how you can sit on something for a while without really paying it much mind, and then all of a sudden it becomes totally relevant, and you wander how you have never thought of it before. When my partner and I moved our studio, people in the village were very kind to us, some came by with old cameras to use as props (Or in a lot of cases of for me to hoard away with intentions fixing and putting to use), or in some cases with books. One gentleman came in with a pile of old books he pulled from his fathers house who had passed away and was very interested in photography. One such book was an edition of "Bill Brandt, Nudes 1945 - 1980" (Brandt, 1980), and while I was initially very intrigued by the abstract nature of the images, the book ultimately ended up on my shelf and wouldn't be removed until a few days ago during my research of Stephen Barkers Nightswimming (Other than during a short workshop on portraits when the question of nude portraits came about).
Brandt spoke simply about these images in "Master Photographers" (1983) a documentary series broadcast by the BBC. He simply noted that after seeing the work of artist and photographer Peter Rose Pullham, he has been inspired to work with a wide angle camera, and soon after acquiring one, discovered that such a lens has distortion qualities on photographs. Its interesting to me how matter-of-fact Brandt speaks in this section, noting that he didn't know the camera would do that, meaning didn't plan for it. Its an addition that this body of work came down partly to chance, and to working with what you have and getting the most from it. He goes on to relay sympathy for the models who worked in the cold for these photos, witch was not a short time as the camera he used didn't have a shutter, instead he simply had to cover it with his hand and move his hand to expose the image, a far cry from the quick and easy snaps of today. Perhaps it was not back then, but there is something romantic about the physical nature of taking the photograph using ones hands.
My current photographic work is questioning the relationship between sexual fetish/desire and the uncanny. The uncanny, as way of describing fear of the unknown, but more specifically (from my understanding of Freud's interpretation of the word) the fear of unknown in relation to the human body. Creating a level of mystification in my images in relation to identity has been a matter of covering facial features with leather masks and In his introduction to "Nudes:1845-1980" (Brandt, 1980) Hiley writes "The female body is seen from unconventional angles, and from very close too. The Camera is not keeping a polite distance, and is seeing with the intimate eye of a lover" and in a youtube video by Blouin Artinfo (2013) the works are described as "both very intimate and yet completely anonymous". For me this reaches straight back to the freud's concepts of the uncanny, and for the images illustrate the uncanny nature of being intimate with another person. The images reflect the experiences of being between the sheets with a lover, so close and intertwined that the lovers individual identities unravel and fall a part to the point of losing humanity. But Brandt's images are not sordid, at least not by today's standard, and in describing them as I have they become romantic, not like the Dark Rooms that inspire my own work, but the subject is the same, the differences are light and a matter of social acceptance.
BLOUIN ARTINFO (2013). BILL BRANDT, Shadow and Light. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xSyRH4cxLA [Accessed 15 NOV. 2019].
Brandt, B. and Hiley, M. (1980). Bill Brandt, nudes 1945-1980. 1st ed. London: Gordon Fraser.
Master Photographers, (1983). [TV programme] BBC Two: BBC.
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