On Reading

Most of us have a personal relationship with books. But, if asked, I wonder if we’d be able to define or describe this relationship… or the characteristics of it. Perhaps, if someone were to watch us reading books, he or she may be able to capture the moment from a distance and define the relationship for us.

On the internet, I found that photographer André Kertész has done exactly that. In his book On Reading, which was published in 1971 and released again this year, photographer Kertész has captured various black and white images of people reading books in their quiet moments.

According to a review of the book by Conor Risch, on PDNonline, “Made between 1915 and 1970, the images in On Reading study the complex and varied relationship we have with the printed word, a relationship Kertész no doubt personally developed at a young age as the son of a bookstore owner.”

Sven Birkerts writes a more critical review of On Reading in Literal Magazine (Issue 26):

“Right at the threshold we face the paradox, that photography is an art committed to outer surfaces, while reading, silent reading anyway, is an act that unfolds in pure inwardness. Not only does it unfold in inwardness, it unfolds it, creates content in the figurative space that thought makes possible. The inner holds the outer. I can far more readily imagine reading a text that clarifies photography than I imagine looking at a photograph that clarifies reading. It does, however, propose a whole field of suggestion, creating, in effect, a vast screen for our projections.”

[Citation: Conor Risch’s review of André Kertész’s On Reading on PDNonline, 25 August 2008; Sven Birkerts’s review of On Reading in Literal Magazine (Issue 26), 9 May 2012.]