Brandt - 'Literary Britain'

Brant is most famous for his distorted nudes and his landscapes, often combining body parts which resemble the landscape around them. In this book ‘Literary Britain’ Brandt picks up on many landscapes which appeared in book form. In the introduction, John Hayward, he says that no matter what kind of collection of images we look at, there are two faculties that come into play. The first is recognition and the second is association.

Our immediate reaction, when looking at a photograph, is to discover what the photograph represents, with our brain telling us exactly what we see, we recognise parts to the image. We may not be inclined to look further into it so when we then move on or turn the page. But when we are interested and curious, association kicks in and we begin to see what the photographer saw when making the image, we use association, memory, and relate the present with the past.

With this book and with these images with text, Brandt wanted to illustrate a particular theme through his images as suggested in the vague title, but the work required some explanation, and aid if you will of their identification, and this is supplied from the letterpress facing each plate.

“These descriptive texts, whether in the form of allusive quotations in verse or prose, or of biblical memoranda, should, I suggest, be used simply as helpful clues to the fullest possible understanding of the pictures. They will be more or less useful according to the individual reader’s knowledge of the facts or allusions they contain about books and authors; and to his capacity for responding, through the association of this personal experience of life and literature with the scenes recorded here, to the evocative element in each picture.”

Hayward, J. (1984). An Introduction By John Hayward (1951). In: Literary Britain. London: Victoria and Albert Museum .