Tuesday, July 21, 2009

André Kertész: On Reading, at The Photographers' Gallery


By Alastair Smart @ Telegraph UK

An urchin on the streets of Manila; a demoiselle in a Parisian café, even a Trappist priest in his study – all were caught in the act by André Kertész. Caught in the act of reading, that is. A pioneer of snapshot photography, Kertész always saw pictorial potential in folk absorbed by a good book, newspaper or letter.

Thriving on the paradox that even in the most crowded, public space one can enjoy such a solitary, private activity, he snapped some 200 readers over his career. Forty of these photos feature in On Reading, a new Kertész exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery.

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Wrong place, wrong man? Fresh doubts on Capa's famed war photo


By Giles Tremlett @ The Guardian

New evidence has emerged that one of the most famous war photographs, shot during the Spanish civil war by Robert Capa, was taken well away from the battlefield, reopening the debate as to whether it is a fake.

Capa's dramatic "The Falling Soldier", the photograph of a Spanish militiaman being killed by a bullet as he charges down a slope, was taken miles away from where the civil war was being fought at the time, according to a university lecturer, José Manuel Susperregui.

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