The American and Parisian photographer, member of Magnum Photos, known for his street and everyday life photographs taken on the spot, celebrates the public use of the written word through a series of images of graffiti and inscriptions on signs, clothing, banners, gravestones, etc., produced over more than 50 years.
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 Jérôme 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 Européenne de la Photographie in 2007.
