Bill Brandt: Centenary Retrospective

In 2004 the V & A led the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Bill Brandt, chiefly by hosting an exhibition and associated events. The exhibition had been originally curated by J.P. Kernot, director of the Bill Brandt Archive, London, and organised for circulation by Curatorial Assistance Incorporated in Pasadena.

Haworth-Booth’s role was to re-sequence the exhibition in a narrative more suited to a centenary, re-caption prints that had been incorrectly titled and dated, omit inferior prints, replace some prints with vintage prints from other collections, write introductory wall labels and texts for the exhibition’s six sections, and edit Brandt’s final television interview (1982) to serve an a preface to the exhibition. These interventions drew from an enquiry into Brandt begun in 1974. A further contribution to Brandt studies was made through recommending the donation of two Brandt albums containing 400 photographs (mainly by Brandt) to the national collection of the art of photography at the V & A, a recommendation that was accepted.

Finally, Haworth-Booth curated a display of these albums to compliment the Centenary Retrospective, organised a Brandt Centenary Symposium 01/05/04 at the V & A and wrote a new essay on the stylistic roots of Brandt’s series of nudes which were created 1945-60. This essay appeared in Brandt Nudes: a New Perspective edited by J. P. Kernot published by the Bill Brandt Archive, 2004 (ISBN 0954704800).