Young people sometimes look at the world with brash certainty, seeing only absolutes — stark blacks and bright whites. But time and experience teach us that life exists mostly in nuanced gray, and that ambiguity often provides insight.
For the photographer Bill Brandt, the reverse was true. His early social documentary work was rendered almost entirely in subtle midtones. It was only in his later, and more famous, nudes and landscapes that he made strikingly high-contrast prints.
