Richard Kalvar: Selected Writings

'Richard Kalvar has always been a great lover and observer of street theater... he surprises and captures key moments, chance encounters, he notes the humour on public signs, in the street, on public transport... This book is a selection of these moments that he shares with us and that his sharp eye has surprised, it will make us laugh or smile and give us a moment of pleasure.' - Eye of Photography

Native New Yorker and now Paris-based photographer Richard Kalvar has spent more than 50 years observing humanity through his camera's lens. With Selected Writings, he shifts his gaze from what people reveal through their actions and facial expressions to what they write: graffiti, signs, t-shirts, banners, gravestones and other public inscriptions. In this work, irony and tenderness struggle for the upper hand. Kalvar's black-and-white photographs span his career from the late 1960s to the present, and were taken in locations across the Western world, especially in Paris, New York and London. From the odd to the surprising to the outright funny, they give a decidedly subjective overview of the public use of the written word.

Richard Kalvar was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1944. In 1965 he interrupted his literature studies, and with absolutely no knowledge of or interest in photography, managed to be hired as an assistant by French fashion photographer Jerome Ducrot. He moved to Paris in 1970, and helped found the Viva agency. In 1975 he joined Magnum Photos and became a full member in 1977. He has served as president and is currently vice-president of the Paris office. A major retrospective of his work was shown at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in 2007.