This piece, also in Gallery 1, appealed to me because its subject was also directly on the pebbles of Brighton Beach, but the emotion of the photograph was much happier. The model is Ester Brandt, the sister in law of the artist, and the photograph is shot in shallow focus so that the figure of Ester is the most distinct form in the whole of the composition, while the background is blurred. It is also in black and white and has a portrait orientation.
On a base of large pebbles sits a young woman, late teens to early twenties, she is wearing a one-piece playsuit and sandals. Her legs are tucked under her, one arm rests between her open knees, catching the texture of the pebbles. Her other arm is in the air, with one hand slightly cupped. She has a flat brimmed hat on her head which is printed with the slogan: I’m no Angel and she has playfully threaded the stem of a small union-jack flag through that brim. The stem is long enough to reach past the line of her jaw. Her hair underneath is short. She is grinning and appears free and happy.
The rest of the photograph’s composition is much more visually indistinct. In the middle-ground, the multitude of other bodies seems artful but amorphous. The stony beach behind her is covered in people, lying or reclining haphazardly. In the extreme background we see elegant seaside properties, perhaps hotels, with neat lawns just in front, hinting at municipal parks not far from the beach, which carefully separate residents from the throngs of tourists.
The artist, Bill Brandt, was an émigré from Hamburg who often used his brother and his sister in law as subjects for his photographs. This photograph can perhaps be considered as a snapshot of the national character, from the perspective of an outsider and with a patriotic figure at the forefront. It was included in a monograph titled: The English at Home which was a slight exaggeration since Ester, his sister in law was in fact Danish.