Exhibition Review
Andre Kertesz "On Reading" at The Photographer's Gallery
Image by Andre Kertesz
I chose to go to The Photographers’ Gallery in London to view the exhibition of Andre Kertesz’ work called “On Reading”. All the photographs shown were taken between 1915 and 1980, spanning most of his career; they were taken in many of the different places that he lived, including Argentina, France, Hungary, USA and the UK. I chose to see this exhibition as I am interested mainly in traditional photography, rather than digital, and was intrigued to see how his techniques of shooting and printing may have altered the effect of his images, making them more successful than others.
The range of photographs in this exhibition was interesting as they were all different sizes, none of them printed bigger than A4. This made the viewer have to get very close to the image to see the smaller details. I also enjoyed how the photographs were collected throughout his career; I thought it was a shame that they were not displayed in chronological order, yet the techniques that he used had definitely developed as he became more practised at using a camera, and seemed to get more settled in finding his own personal style. This span of time across the photographs was also affected by the events at the time that the image was taken; many were taken during the war, which made a difference in the areas that Kertesz photographed, and the people who were around to be photographed.
I found this exhibition particularly intriguing as I find it interesting how people are influenced by books and the type of literature that they read; these images showed how all sorts of people in all sorts of places have read books. It was fascinating how the time that the photograph was taken is imminent in the image due to the clothes that the subjects are wearing, and the surroundings that they are in. This collection of images ranged from those set-up and posed, and those using the decisive moment, with more of a photojournalist feel. Many of the images made the viewer feel like a voyeur, the model unaware of the picture being taken.
Overall, I really enjoyed this exhibition as I felt that it truly celebrated the pleasure of reading, and combined it with the artistic force of photography; it was also the first time I have seen Kertesz’ work exhibited, which I found interesting as he is said to be one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.
By Charlotte Brisley
Exhibition at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA Campus, Norwich
