Soho Bedroom

Bill Brandt British, born Germany

1932

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Bill Brandt challenged the standard tenets of documentary practice by frequently staging scenes for the camera and recruiting family and friends as models. In this intimate study of a couple embracing, the male figure is believed to be either a friend or the artist’s younger brother; the female figure is an acquaintance, "Bird," known for her beautiful hands. The photograph appears with a different title, Top Floor, along with sixty-three others in Brandt’s second book, A Night in London (1938). After the book’s publication, Brandt changed the work’s title to Soho Bedroom to reference London’s notorious Red Light district and add a hint of salaciousness to the kiss.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Soho Bedroom
Artist: Bill Brandt (British (born Germany), Hamburg 1904–1983 London)
Date: 1932
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 8 7/16 × 7 5/16 in. (21.4 × 18.5 cm)
Framed: 16 × 14 1/2 in. (40.6 × 36.8 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
Curatorial Department: Photographs