MADRID.- The German/English artist Bill Brandt is considered a key figure in British photography. For over fifty years, he developed a wide spectrum of subjects – landscapes, portraits, nudes and social scenes – characterised by his expressive use of light and space. Although Brandt worked during a period marked by profound social changes, his images primarily contain aesthetic intentions.

The Home focuses on the beginnings of industrial England, the period that goes from the late nineteen thirties to the end of the nineteen forties. Brandt is one of the first photographers to take an interest in the industrial aesthetic and to portray the working class. In over fifty images, working families from London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Halifax are photographed in their private worlds in contrast to the surrounding environment. Avoiding any political or moralistic discourse, Brandt builds landscapes out of rundown buildings with which he shelters people, the main axis of his architecture.

Bill Brandt (Hamburg, 1904 - London, 1983) was the son of a German mother and English father. His childhood and teenage years were spent between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. After working for a while in Man Ray’s Parisian studio, Brandt settled in England in 1931 and began work as a photojournalist. During World War II, he documented the Nazi bombings of London for the British Ministry of Information. His work is contained in ten publications including Shadow of Light (1966) and Bill Brandt Nudes: 1945-1980 (1980).