Book tip: On Reading

Every book you open, also opens a doorway. Reading is usually a very private, intimate experience, where the reader withdraws from everyday life for a brief period of time. Photographer David Hurn is also a passionate reader and, over his long career, has collected countless pictures of people reading. He is obviously fascinated by observing people immersed in another world, which can not be captured photographically. Photography deals with surfaces, while reading is an individual, inward-looking experience. This is why observing people reading always makes for an captivating moment, as it deals with this contradiction.

Deeply engrossed in books, magazines or newspapers, whether a novel or a rugby magazine, a museum guide or a menu: people everywhere are reading – in a cafe, on a train, in the street, on the beach, even in the pool. Hurn’s selection shows everyday situations, as well as curious moments, with unknown people as often as prominent ones, like The Beatles (1964), Japanese actress Akiko Wakabayashi (1966), or Jane Fonda with director Joseph Losey (1972). And naturally, members of the photographer’s family are also included in the gallery of readers. With 64 black and white pictures, taken between 1957 and 2023, a journey around the world unfolds, from the USA, right through Europe, on via Qatar and all the way to New Zealand, while returning time and again to Wales, the epicentre of Hurn’s life. And so, the book also provides insight into the Magnum photographer’s huge body of work.

Hurn dedicated the book to André Kertész, because it also represents the fulfilment of a promise made forty years ago. In 1983, while working on the photo project A Day in the Life of London, which involved 100 photographers, Hurn met Kertész – who was 89 at the time – and they spoke about one of Hurn’s favourite books: On Reading, first published in 1971 by his revered Kertész. Hurn asked permission to publish his own book under the same title, once he himself turned 89. Kertész gave permission, and On Reading is the wonderful result. While all of Kertész’s protagonists were immersed in books, Hurn’s characters also use computers, e-readers and mobile phones. However, the opportunity to disappear into a parallel world has not changed, regardless of whether it is analogue or digital.