Untitled (Pub interior) c. 1930s

This untitled photograph was captured by Bill Brandt sometime in the mid 20th century. Look at the way the light almost feels like its part of the conversation, bouncing off the pint glasses and the faces in the pub. The surfaces here are so tactile, you can almost feel the condensation on the glass, the wool of the coats. The shadows aren't just dark, they're like a heavy, comforting blanket, drawing everyone closer. Then there’s that smear of white that sits on the man’s cheek, an odd detail – what’s that doing there? The light seems to cling to it, drawing your eye, disrupting the sense of things being exactly how they should. The artist is showing us the everyday, but he’s also making us see it in a new light. Brandt was a master of light and shadow, and you can see echoes of someone like Brassai, who documented Parisian nightlife with a similar intimacy. But Brandt’s got this grit, this raw edge, that’s all his own. It’s like he’s saying, “Here’s life, messy and real, take it or leave it.”