During WWII, German planes would frequently bomb London to discourage the people and wreak havoc on the infrastructure of Britain. Churchill and Parliament, in an effort to minimize death and conserve energy for the war, placed a curfew on the country to turn off all lights and go into a blackout. This would make it harder for German planes to have a target or even know what they were hitting. Bill Brant’s photography of the city during the blackouts would come to be some of his most iconic work. While the pictures aren’t edited by Brandt, it’s hard to rationalize how the images could be real. There’s an eerie and mysterious tone to each that is completely void of life at all. Compared to Brandt’s early work in London trying to capture daily life, the blackout photos appear to be devoid of any life at all. There’s a solemn sadness to each photograph that words are unable to describe. Brandt’s photography took a different turn and he wished to capture the spirit of the British people during the war. Even with large estates next to those that are small and not as well developed, they appear the same in the darkness of the blackouts. Brandt’s photography sees a disillusioned population that wasn’t thrilled to join a war but was thrust into it by force.