Bill Brandt - Nude (1959)Brandt is a photographer well known for playing with scale and depth of field. Before photographing his collection now known as 'A perspective of nudes', Brandt photographed much of the English society and London during the blitz of world war two. Although he became well established for these photographs Brandt felt the need to push photography further. He mentions how modern cameras capture an image like a mirror, and how he wanted to step inside the mirror in order to give "an altered perspective and a less conventional image" he said how he wanted an image from the perspective of "perhaps, a mouse, a fish or a fly". A friend suggested to him to purchase a brass and mahogany stand camera. Although this camera did not give him the perspective of a mouse, he was told he could "look into his camera as the storyteller once looked into his memory".
He often uses a tiny aperture in order to flatten an image and distort perspective, making it hard for a viewer to see the actual scale of the objects in his photos, giving him this unique dream like scene he had been looking for.
Brandt links the human body to natural surroundings by shooting close ups of the body among similar natural objects (in this case he has taken a close up of a woman's legs crossed among pebbles with similar texture and tone.) By using a tiny aperture causing the image to look flat and confusing scale, the legs and the pebbles are made to look very similar, as if echoing one another. The way Brandt shoots the body is quite abstract and verging even on surrealism, causing a viewer to see the image from a new perspective. He also took the shot from very low down to the ground adding to this new perspective.
The tones seen in this photograph are consistently smooth and gradual adding to the dream like atmosphere; everything looks very natural and elegant. The smooth lines of the legs add to this feminine elegance, while the dark tones suggest a more masculine and solid appearance. The contrast of tone separates the two legs with a solid line. This emphasises the smooth line of the leg and it's feminine appearance. Presumably the light used for this image is natural light from the sun. He obtains a chiaroscuro style of lighting, creating depth in the image in both the background and the foreground. The darker tones act like an anchor to the eye, giving the viewer something to visually grasp. This chiaroscuro style of lighting evokes emotion from the viewer, adding to the dramatic elements of the photo.
The emptiness of the softly toned sky in the background causes the pebbles and the legs in the foreground to stand out as a solid.
I believe the grainy texture of the picture is more aesthetically pleasing than anything else, but it gives the photo charisma; a personality. Almost like wise wrinkles on an aged face. It also contrasts well with the smoothness of the tones in the picture.
