READING COMICS
“Reading Comics”, André Kertész
By Marcos, Hugo and Pablo D.
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
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André Kertész Observation Skills Technical Knowledge
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CONCLUSION
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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INTRODUCTION In this project we are going to show all the things that make this photo different and the metaphor hidden behind it. We are going to show our common ideas and also the ideas of each of us when they’re not the same. The photo is about a boy reading comics but with a hidden story.
André Kertész André Kertész was a Hungarian photographer who emerged as one of the most influential practitioners of the medium. Kertész remains best known for his contributions to photojournalism, employing distinctively dynamic compositions throughout his influential photo essays. Kertész was born on July 2, 1894 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, he came from a Jewish middle-class background. He eventually moved to Paris, throughout the mid-1920s, he met, Piet Mondrian, Sergei Eisenstein, and many of the Dadaists. Kertész eventually fled France and its growing Jewish persecutions, and emigrated to America where he went on to work for magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and House & Garden. He also worked mounting solo shows at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1946 and at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1964. Kertész died on September 25, 1985 in New York
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FORMAL ANALYSIS Observation Skills In this photo we can see a child lying over some newspapers reading them in an empty old street. The most important thing about this picture is the young boy reading the newspapers that were in the rubbish.
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In the background we see two archaic shop windows. We think it was a shop because of the poster on the window.. We can also see a building that looks high. In the foreground we can see a young boy who is eating a vanilla and chocolate ice cream and reading some magazines and newspapers.
We think the boy was walking and eating his ice cream and when he saw all the comics on the floor he sat to read them. I also think he’s going to continue reading until he has to go home. We think the photograph is not an actual one because of the clothes of the boy, who are not usual in our days, and because of the condition of the street. And the poster of the window tells us that the photo is not actual. We think he’s a clever boy because he likes reading which improves your intelligence, and he’s about 10 or 11 years old. He’s wearing a short sleeved white shirt, dark shorts, long socks and shoes. We think he hasn’t got much money because he has his clothes a bit dirty, and this tells us that he is not in a superior social group. We can also know that he likes what he is reading because he is in a comfortable posture that tells us that he is going to stay there more time.
He might be feeling a lot of things and he doesn’t seem happy, but we think he is smiling in this moment because books and comics say you lots of different things. He could be a poor boy who appreciates literature a lot and as lots of people throw valuable things he’s picking up everything and using those things. He can also be a boy who prefers reading instead of playing football and his parents think reading is a stupid thing so he goes to the street to read thrown comics. We think the photographer wanted to show people the broken comics and this special boy who appreciates so much reading and he is even seating on the floor to read all the comics. He wanted to show that literature is not something similar to other things, because it is something amazing that makes you feel something you don’t usually feel, but a lot of people don’t appreciate literature and that’s what the photographer wanted to express. 4
Technical Knowledge The photographer could be a girl because some people think that girls usually empathize, more than boys, with children. From her point of view, the photograph was taken from above the boy, looking down and near him. When she took the picture, she was standing next to the road. The photographer chose this point of view because she wanted to reflect or make the effect of inferiority or that the boy belongs to an inferior social group.
The lighting is natural and it comes from the sun above the boy. The lighting is bright and also a bit hard and contrasty because the tones of black and white are quite different. All the picture is clear because he wants to give the same importance to all the photo. The lighting draws our attention to the comics and the boy, who has more lighting and also, creates a mood of calm because he’s alone reading and a mood of happiness because he’s eating an ice cream.
The old building with the boy and all the comics on the floor are includes in the picture frame, to show people an idea of a poor place. Outside the frame you can see new buildings and more people or only more old houses, because she wanted to show that in cities there are social differences. The cropping makes the effect of standing out the boy, the poster and the comics. With the cropping he puts only important things so you would see only the essential things in the photo. It also draws boy and what he is doing.
The purpose of taking this photo is that she wants to show that in many cities people don’t have the same privileges as we have. She also wants to improve reading in children. The boy’s clothes show us that it is a photo of the 60’s and this communicates that in that time period literature was underestimated.
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The photograph makes us feel lucky because we have a lot of books, and also G makes us feel happiness because he can read books and comics. This inspire us to make 3D books to show to any place all over the world.
We can see one symbol that is the ice cream that represents the motivation of finishing things you have already started, in this case, reading the comics. There’s also a metaphor that is the poster on the building. In the poster you can read that paper is needed, but comics are thrown on the floor.
CONCLUSION Finally we think our photo is the best because it has a great metaphor hidden in it and it also has a lot of different themes to talk. The cropping has a lot of importance and we also think lighting and framing are very good to give an idea of the photo.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Kertész, André. “Reading books”. https://www.edu.xunta.gal/centros/iesfene/aulavirtual2/pluginfile.php/12218/mod_res ource/content/3/Visual%20Literacy%20-%20Practice%20%28No%20Information%2 9.pdf [Accessed 3/06/2018] Kertész, André. “Reading books”. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/andre-kertesz-4604.php [Accessed 3/06/2018]
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