Beyond the Frame 51/

Six Degrees of David Hurn. From photographer David Hurn to Kevin Bacon (yes, really) — a photographic trail involving readers reading, and the photographers who are captivated by them.

For the love of the Readers

Reading in an open train carriage window, Yangon, Myanmar. © Gavin Gough. 1/50, ƒ2.8, ISO 100, 35mm

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Do you know the game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where the challenge is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon in six steps or fewer?

Let’s use one of this generation’s finest actors, Cillian Murphy, as an example.

1. Cillian Murphy appeared in Dunkirk alongside Kenneth Branagh.

2. Kenneth Branagh starred in Rabbit-Proof Fence with Jason Clarke.

3. Jason Clarke featured in Everest with Jake Gyllenhaal.

4. Jake Gyllenhaal appeared in Prisoners with Viola Davis.

5. Viola Davis starred in The Help with Emma Stone.

6. Emma Stone appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love with Kevin Bacon.

(It’s actually possible to connect Cillian Murphy to Kevin Bacon in two steps via Robert De Niro but it’s not an obvious connection. Solution at the foot of the newsletter.)

Inadvertently, I’ve been playing my own version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon this week, but with photographers instead of actors.

Six Degrees of David Hurn

Following on from last week’s newsletter, where I wrote about how accessible photography can be, I’d planned to—and indeed I shall—introduce photographer David Hurn as an example of how age needn’t be a barrier to photography.

In his 10th decade, David has “cracked Instagram”.

Hurn’s Instagram account now has more than 80,000 followers. Not bad for an elderly gentleman making photos of village fetes and neighbours’ birthday parties in a small village in south Wales.

Flying High. © David Hurn

But there’s more to David Hurn than meets the eye.

Hurn built a reputation as a photojournalist, documenting the Hungarian revolution in 1956. In the 1960s he turned his camera to celebrities, photographing The Beatles, Michael Caine, Sophia Loren, and Sean Connery in their heyday.

The iconic pistol that appeared in promotional material for From Russia with Love belonged to Hurn, loaned to Connery when the Bond publicist realised they’d forgotten to bring a gun to the photo session.

Sean Connery, ‘From Russia with Love’, 1963. David Hurn / Magnum Photos

Now aged 90, David Hurn clearly hasn’t lost his love of photography, even if these days his subjects are less internationally recognisable.

“I’ve become the village photographer, so I cover little Johnny’s birthday party and this and that and I do it very seriously, as though I was working for Life magazine.”
~ David Hurn

David Hurn - On Instagram

Seven years of David’s Instagram posts, featuring new and classic photographs, have been collected into an impressive book.

On Instagram by David Hurn

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People Reading—Connection 1

Student in a local school dress on the sea front, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 1964. David Hurn / Magnum Photos

So I’m looking at David Hurn’s Instagram account and this picture of a Croatian student reminds me of a collection of photos in my own archive named “People reading”. I think, “Hmm, ‘People Reading’ might make a good theme for a Beyond the Frame newsletter.”

But before I share some of my images from that collection, I’d like to share another picture.

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Wayne Miller

One of my favourite photographs of a person reading is Wayne Miller’s study of a girl reading—or pretending to read—an upside-down copy of Ebony magazine on the doorstep of her home in Chicago.

Girl reading Ebony magazine. Chicago, Illinois, 1947. © Wayne Miller

Wayne Miller had photographed the aftermath of the attack on Hiroshima in 1945. He returned to Chicago and spent two years documenting the lives of marginalised communities in the city’s South Side. Miller said he was motivated by a desire “to know the people that I saw and to try to express how they were feeling about their daily lives and their families.”

Miller’s photograph of the Girl Reading Ebony Magazine is all about the pose. It probably didn’t matter to the young girl whether the magazine was the right way up or not. She’s adopted the grown-up, learned posture of a studious reader; something she’d no doubt seen family and friends do on a daily basis.

Prints of Girl Reading Ebony Magazine are available on the Magnum website for €3,350. Also, it’s my birthday soon. I’m just putting that out there. 😬

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On Reading—Gavin Gough

What is it about seeing somebody reading that’s so captivating?

Perhaps we recognise that the reader has, to a greater or lesser degree, temporarily escaped to a different world, and that’s fascinating. Where have they gone? What world are they in?

They might only have gone as far as last weekend’s football match as they read a sports report or they could be fighting formidable Frost Giants deep within a frozen, fantasy forest. With a book, all things are possible.

Pak Khlong Talaat, Bangkok, Thailand. © Gavin Gough. 1/320, ƒ2.8, ISO 400, 32mm

Bookseller’s Break, Kolkata, India. © Gavin Gough. 1/60, ƒ2.8, ISO 100, 35mm

Barcelona, Spain and Tonle Sap, Cambodia. © Gavin Gough.

Chatuchak and Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand. © Gavin Gough.

Djamaa Masjid, Delhi, India. Nizammudin Darga, Delhi, India. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. © Gavin Gough

TEDx, Volkstheater, Vienna, Austria. © Gavin Gough

Vienna, Austria and Paris, France. © Gavin Gough

Sunset and sunrise, Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand. © Gavin Gough

"Reading is a serious matter, but readers are seldom lonely or bored, because reading is a refuge and an enlightenment.”
~ Paul Theroux, from the foreword to Steve McCurry’s book, On Reading

On Reading—Steve McCurry—Connection 2

As I’m adding my pictures to the first draft of this edition, I remember a Steve McCurry blog post featuring his photographs of people reading.

I haven’t been able to track down that blog post (perhaps, like some of McCurry’s more controversial photographs, it has been “archived”) but I did discover that he published a book, called On Reading, consisting exclusively of photos of people reading.

On Reading by Steve McCurry

Litang, Tibet. Foligno, Italy. Smederebo, Serbia. Kuwait. From On Reading by Steve McCurry

A reader’s video shows more images from Steve McCurry’s book, On Reading.

Opinions on McCurry’s work are as varied as his photographs but, for what it’s worth, I lean towards giving him the benefit of the doubt. I feel the same way about Steve McCurry as I do about Morrissey. Both have made some dubious choices but I’d no sooner stop enjoying McCurry’s (un-doctored) photographs than I’d stop listening to The Smiths’ back catalogue.

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On Reading—André Kertész—Connection 3

As I’m thinking about McCurry and his fascination with people reading, I remember another book, which I think has the same premise and similar title.

It only takes a moment to find André Kertész’s collection of photographs of people reading. Not just a similar title, it’s exactly the same: On Reading.

On Reading by André Kertész

Young man seated near window, Martinique, 1972. André Kertész/Stephen Bulger gallery

If anything, André Kertész’s book is even more beguiling than McCurry’s. I find it hard to put into words but there’s something more contemplative in Kertész’s pictures. Somehow, the readers he photographed seem more deeply engrossed in their books.

Perhaps it’s simply that Kertész’s photos are black and white and McCurry’s pictures are in colour. Whatever the reason, and even though the photographs in both collections are all of people reading, they differ in subtle ways. Perhaps you can suggest what it might be?

Man Reading with Magnifying Glass, New York, 1959. André Kertész/Stephen Bulger gallery

Long Island University, New York, 1963. André Kertész/Stephen Bulger gallery

Here’s a YouTube clip, made by Solomon, a fan of On Reading,

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On Reading—David Hurn—Connection 4

You may be wondering what this has to do with Kevin Bacon?

Absolutely nothing.

But as I’ve crowbarred the Six Degrees of separation thing into this newsletter as a creaking narrative device, here’s one conclusion which might satisfy:

Jane Fonda in Barbarella, 1967, photographed by David Hurn

1. David Hurn photographed Jane Fonda for the film Barbarella.

2. Jane Fonda co-starred alongside Robert De Niro in Stanley & Iris.

3. De Niro and Ed Harris appeared in the 1989 classic, Jacknife.

4. Famously, Ed Harris starred in Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks and… Kevin Bacon.

Phew!

But here’s a more pleasing, photographic link. This is the connection that I made quite brilliantly/accidentally (delete according to your level of confidence in this author’s ability).

I’m reading an interview with David Hurn and he says:

"In September 1983 I was invited together with 99 other photographers from all over the world, for a midnight-to-midnight 24 hour vigil to photograph London. The result was the book ‘A Day in the Life London’. Among those guests arriving was one of my photographic heroes, André Kertész.”

Wait! What?

That’s spooky. I’m still reflecting on André Kertész’s On Reading book and here’s David Hurn speaking about him.

Hurn continues:

“Kertész was 89 years of age. I met up with him for breakfast in a hotel in South Kensington. I told him that one of my favourite books was his, ‘On Reading’…”

If you own eyebrows, at least one of them should, at this point, be raised.

“After much chatting and laughing, I suggested that if he gave his permission, I would re-do the book when I was 89. He gave his permission.”

And so I learn that David Hurn’s photo book, On Reading, which is dedicated to André Kertész, was published just a few weeks ago, when Hurn was 89 years old.

On Reading by David Hurn

Here’s the interview on Exibart Street that I was reading.

The Leica Fotografie International magazine website has a review of the book, together with some of the photos and you’ll find more photos in a collection published by The Guardian.

The Beatles during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, London, 1964. © David Hurn

Pleasingly, one of the photographs in David Hurn’s version of On Reading features Jane Fonda.

Joseph Losey discussing aspects of Ibsen’s play with Jane Fonda during the filming of A Doll’s House, Norway, 1972. © David Hurn

Cafe near Tower Hill, London, 2013. © David Hurn

“Life, as it unfolds in front of the camera, is full of so much complexity, wonder, and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things as-they-are.”
~ David Hurn

The joy of serendipity

I really enjoyed this unplanned diversion down Serendipity Street.

I began writing about David Hurn finding a new audience on Instagram in his 90th year. One of David’s Instagram posts reminded me of my own photographs of people reading, which in turn brought Wayne Miller’s wonderful image to mind. Miller’s photo of a Girl Reading Ebony Magazine took me to Steve McCurry’s book, On Reading, and from McCurry, inevitably, to André Kertész’s classic, On Reading, and that brought me back—serendipitously—to David Hurn, via his own homage to Kertész, On Reading.

Now we know the joyfully diverting answer to the seemingly pointless question, “How do you get from David Hurn to David Hurn in four steps?”

Being open to serendipity, possessing a willingness to embrace the unexpected, is a trait that we might all benefit from, none more so than photographers.

I leave you with two slightly different but equally memorable definitions of serendipity.

“Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realise that what you’ve found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.”
~ Lawrence Block

“Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer’s daughter.”
Julius H. Comroe, Jr.

If you have a particularly serendipitous photographic connection that you’d like to share, please leave a comment.

Until next time, go well.

Cillian Murphy to Kevin Bacon in two steps:

1. Cillian Murphy starred alongside Robert De Niro in the film Red Lights

2. Robert De Niro appeared with Kevin Bacon in Sleepers.

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Directory: Beyond the Frame newsletter archive.

Resources: Recommended books, films, gear, media etc.

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