Courtesy and © Estate of Andre Kertesz/Higher Pictures 2007

Andre Kertesz, New York (boy eating ice cream on pile of newspapers) (1944). Gelatin silver print, 7 3/4 x 8 7/8 in.

December 2008 Field Guide

Anri Sala

Predrive: After Technology

Experimenta Folklore

Javier Ramirez Limon

Indian Art

Mark Manders

Klara Liden

Ron Arad

Pipilotti Rist

Transpop: Korea Vietnam Remix

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans

Ree Morton

Emotional Drawing

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In 1914, when he was 20, Andre Kertesz was sent by the Austro-Hungarian army to the front lines, where he took combat photographs of World War I's terrible carnage. So it is perhaps not surprising that, when given the opportunity, he would train his lens on a peaceful activity: reading. In more than 75 photographs made between 1925 and 1975, Kertesz captured individuals rapt by the written word — in parks, cafes, libraries, rooftops, and trains and on the streets of cities from Buenos Aires to New Orleans to Paris, including Nara (readers on commuter trains) (1968), a quintessential subway-reading shot taken in Japan. The power of watching people consumed in this private act is indescribable, but Kertesz's elegant and surprising photographs go far in illuminating its delight.

"Andre Kertesz: On Reading" originally appeared in the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' December 2008 / January 2009 Table of Contents.