A Night in London.

Truth is not accidental. One of Brandt's key books and his scarcest title, published simultaneously in French as Londres de Nuit, both printed with bilingual captions. Several publisher's warehouses were hit during the Blitz, including those of Country Life, which were severely damaged in 1939. The narrative begins at dusk and finishes at dawn with milk and newspapers left on the doorstep. As with his first book The English at Home (1936), Brandt staged some of the pictures using a cast consisting of friends and family. In the introduction to his later book Camera in London (1948) the issue of the constructed nature of his photographs is addressed.

'Bill Brandt's pictures are not portraits: they are generalisations. He is not so much concerned about individuals as about types… As opposed to the ideas of candid portraiture, it does not matter for his purposes that the people he is photographing may be aware of his presence or may even be holding it for him. Nor does this sort of posing, if it can be called that, affect the truth of his pictures. Truth is not accidental.'

First edition; 4to (250 x 190 mm, 9¾ x 7½ in); black & white photographs printed in gravure, light foxing and marks to preliminary and final pages, abraision to first page; original photo-illustrated wrappers, light wear, creasing to corners, small stain to lower side corner, spine repaired, in a custom cloth drop spine box; [viii], 64pp.

The Open Book pp126-7 (French issue); The Photobook A History, I p138.