Bill Brandt 1904-1983

ferrotyped, titled by the photographer in pencil and with his credit stamp (twice) and reduction notations in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, 1940 (Houk, p. 11; variants in Shadow of Light, p. 58; Behind the Camera, p. 36; Brandt, p. 134)

During London's wartime blackout, Brandt was commissioned by the Home Office to photograph conditions in the city's subterranean air-raid shelters.  Situated in Underground stations and church crypts, the shelters offered an eerily quiet contrast to the periodic bombardment above-ground.  Lilliput magazine had featured Brandt's photographs of London's deserted evening streets and, in December 1942, the magazine published a series of his shelter photographs alongside Henry Moore's drawings of the shelters.