On Reading - André Kertész
The recent release of the iPad touched off another round of speculation about the future of the printed book. Will ink and paper give way to glowing pixels? Will groaning bookshelves give way to electronic devices capable of reducing an entire library to a plastic box small enough to fit in purse or briefcase? Will people even read at all.
André Kertész's photo essay, On Reading, is not about books, but about people reading. The earliest photograph shows three small boys sharing a book in Esztergom, Hungary in 1915. The most recent photograph in the book is of a man reading on a New York rooftop in 1970. This slim volume spans over 50 years of Kertesz's career, and each of the 66 photographs is intensely seen, dense with life.
Consider: La Havre, France, 1948. In front of a battered brick building , a lampost stands at a crazy angle in front on a curtained window. The wooden shutters are open. A woman inside, holding a book close to her face, reads in the window light.
Consider: A man and woman at the Medici Fountain, Paris in 1928. The woman hold a briefcase and portfolio on her lap. At first glance, it could be a businessman and his secretary on lunch break. But notice that the woman is touchng him.. Their heads are bent together over a book, and they seem lost in their own world.
Consider: Belleview Forest, Paris, 1931. A woman sits on the ground alone, surrounded by leaf-less trees. Her legs are stretched straight out in front of her and she is reading a newspaper. Beside her on the ground is a folded overcoat, and on top of that, a man's hat.
Consider: On a small roof-top terrace in Paris, 1963, a man sits alone reading a newspaper. A trellis made of wire forms a canopy over his head, and in flower boxes perched on the very edge of the terrace a vining plant is starting to grow, morning glories perhaps, or beans. It is early spring. The flue thimbles on the surrounding roofs look like flower pots.
This is a small book, one to return to again and again, to linger over. It is a book to be read, although it contains just pictures, no words.
Someday, On Reading will no doubt be available for download to your portable electronic device. And that's fine. But as a lifelong lover of ink and paper, I'll take the printed book, find a quiet corner with good light, and read.
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A selection of the photographs in On Reading is available at this web gallery.
On Reading was first published in 1971 and was re-issued by W.W. Norton in 2008. It is still in print and available in bookstores and online. Photography In Place is not affiliated with any book seller and does not profit from sales of this book.
I love the smell, feel and comfort of a book. It brings me great pleasure to curl up in a comfy chair (a fireplace would be nice also, but I don't have one of those...yet) with a good book and cold or rainy day. Somehow, curling up with a computer, or electronic device just does not conjure up any such feelings. On the flip side, catching a flight with a bag of heavy books on my shoulder would also make me long more for the light device that holds everything that I could possibly read on my journey. I hope that print never goes away, but I love that there might be other options available to us if needed. :) Loving your blog and photos, you have a way behind the shutter.
ReplyDeleteYou are right--it is nice to have both options and I hope that continues. The local bookstores here in Charlottesville seem to be packed all the time and I take that as a good sign for print.
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