Photographer Steve Stewart is always looking for the unguarded moment, and has found it most often when people are reading (and part II). His new book explores the relationship between reading and art:
We are familiar with words describing images, but not so familiar with images describing words and the impact reading has on our lives. Artists from Rembrandt to Picasso have explored the interaction of people with their books. Everywhere I go in the world, I see young and old, rich and poor, reading books. Whether readers are engaged in the sacred or the secular, they are, for a time, transported to another world. Reading a good book is a universal activity, and people read while they do just about everything else.
Stewart quoting Susan Sontag:
“The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality… ” The same can be said for reading books.
As someone who feels equal parts intimate and a visitor while deep in a book, I love this definition. Perhaps this dichotomy may fare well for some in other places.
