Georges Braques’ right eye, 1963

In the early 1960s Bill Brandt embarked on a photographic series in which he reduced his subjects’ faces to a close-up shot of one of the eyes. The people he photographed in this manner included the artists Max Ernst, Georges Braque, Victor Vasarely, Henry Moore, Antoni Tàpies, Jean Arp, Jean Dubuffet and Alberto Giacometti

Nude, Baie des Anges, France, 1959

While walking on the beaches of northwest France, Brandt’s attention was caught by the rounded forms of rocks on the beach and their resemblance to some forms of the human body

Francis Bacon on Primrose Hill, London, 1963

Brandt’s wide-angle lens, which produces a sense of space distorted in depth, and the chosen moment, just after sunset with the last light of day blending with the artificial light, give this scene a strange atmosphere

Top Withens, West Riding, Yorkshire, 1945

Brandt recalled visiting Top Withens various times to photograph it, because he considered it to be a venue that best conveyed the world of Emily Brontë. The farm, now a ruin, is said to be the place that inspired her novel Wuthering Heights

Snicket in Halifax, 1937

In 1951 Brandt started to print his photographs using a paper that could render very dark and light areas in the same image. In the earlier prints of this photograph, the details of the facade of the building on the left are perfectly visible. In contrast, in the second iteration he completely blackened the house and created a strong contrast with the glint on the ramp’s cobblestones while adding a plume of black smoke in the sky

Nude, Baie des Anges, France, 1959

For his series of nudes photographed outdoors, Brandt abandoned his Kodak plate camera in favour of a Hasselblad with a wide-angle lens, and his much-used Rolleiflex