Flesh

Nude, London 1952, one of British photographer Bill Brandts best known images, has been reproduced on the covers of at least three novels of varying subject matter. More to the point, one wonders if the anonymous photographer who made the cover image for Karen Robardss steamy thriller, Bait, was at all influenced, subconsciously if not directly, by the Brandt photo. Photographers do, after all, look at other photographs, and cant help having their vision shaped by the icons of Photohistory. And if there was no influence whatsoever, just what is it about the combination of raking side-light and the undulating crook of the subjects arm that made both photographers trip the shutter?

See ‘Multiple Uses’ for other books with the same cover image: