R E A D E R S
Between 2007-2008, I approached readers in Paris parks. We talked about reading, photography, public life and ourselves. I made over 70 portraits some of which are shown here.
At the end of our conversations, I would leave the readers to continue their solitary public acts and I would go find a place apart for my own private exercise: making notes in my small red notebook after each encounter. I thought of these accounts of short term memory as retrospective verbatim. I made my chronicles, linking them to the book titles that would become the titles of their corresponding photographs. Some of the juxtapositions between the titles and the images I named after them were amusing. One of my favourites was an autobiographical inquiry into political apathy, read by a young man sitting alone in a circle of empty chairs. The book was called: “La campagne Présidentielle n’a pas eu lieu” (The Presidential Campaign did not take place.)
All images © Erin Brubacher