November in the Suburb 1933

Bill Brandt made this photograph, “November in the Suburb,” probably with a large format camera. I can almost hear the click and smell the darkroom chemicals. It’s a bird’s-eye view of a tightly packed suburb somewhere in Britain, row upon row of houses marching up the frame like some kind of infinite pattern. I'm imagining Brandt up high on a ladder or on the roof of a car to get this perfectly composed shot. The light is so even, diffused, like the sun is behind a cloud. It gives everything a soft, almost melancholic feel. The tonal range is incredible, each house has a subtle variation in the grey, all layered up on one another. Each roof angled to let light in, but at the same time, a solid block. Brandt was a master of light and shadow, he found the beauty in ordinary life.