  During the war the Ministry of Information paid photographers and artists, some famous, some not so famous, to record their impressions of life in wartime Britain. The results of their work can be found in many art galleries but especially in the Imperial War Museum. A technological revolution took place in photography in the 1920s and 1930s. The invention of easy-to-load 35mm roll film and the Leica lightweight SLR camera meant that photographers did not have to set up bulky equipment or ask people to stop and pose for a picture. They could point and click, take people by surprise, show things as they actually were. One of the most famous and influential photographers of the twentieth century was Bill Brandt. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he was a Londoner by adoption and inclination. In 1937 and 1938 he had published two books of photographs - 'The English at Home' and 'A Night in London' - which are amongst the most famous examples of photo-journalism, that is telling a story with a series of photographs, almost like a television documentary. Nearly all of the photographs in the Shelter section are work done by Bill Brandt for the Ministry of Information. Here are two more of his photographs, this time of boys and young men in air raid shelters.This section also includes seven paintings by different artists of their impressions of life in the shelters. All of these paintings, from the Imperial War Museum, are part of a wider collection that can be seen on http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/ |
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