Everything Is Photograph: A Life of André Kertész is a substantial critical biography that traces Kertész’s life and simultaneously argues for his centrality to modern photography as a medium of subjective seeing and intimate human connection.citylights+2
Photography as subjective seeing: Albers foregrounds Kertész as a pioneer of “subjective photojournalism,” insisting that his work shifted photography from neutral record to personal vision.otherpress+1
The photographer as narrative self-maker: The book shows how Kertész used photographs and self-mythologizing to construct a life-story across Hungary, Paris, and New York, treating images as tools of self-narration and self-invention.patriciaalbers+1
Modernity and exile: Albers reads the moves from Budapest to interwar Paris to wartime and postwar New York as a story of modernist dislocation, with the experience of war, migration, and marginalization inscribed in his visual language.otherpress+1
Form as emotional content: The study emphasizes the formal vigor—off-kilter compositions, play with shadows, everyday objects—through which Kertész translated subtle emotional states into visual structure.citylights+1
Photography as human connection: The book frames Kertész’s images as mediating empathy and curiosity, insisting that photography at its best is a relational practice rather than merely aesthetic or documentary.patriciaalbers+1
Re-centering Kertész in photo history: Albers positions him as “father of modern photography,” particularly in relation to the Leica, street photography, and early photo-essays, thereby revising a canon that often foregrounds others (Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, Capa) more prominently.otherpress+2
Rich account of a “lost” era: The book reconstructs the culture of Jazz Age Paris, Condé Nast’s postwar media world, and the 1970s “photo boom,” giving historians of modernism and media a densely contextualized narrative.citylights+2
Interdisciplinary usefulness: Because it combines close reading of images with social, political, and biographical history (World War I trenches, the Holocaust’s impact, émigré networks), it is useful to scholars of visual culture, migration, and 20th‑century studies.otherpress+1
Model of archival biography: Drawing on interviews, archives, and prior scholarship, the book exemplifies how to build an interpretive biography that interrogates rather than simply illustrates the work.otherpress+2
Depth and comprehensiveness: At over 500 pages, it offers the first full-dress life of Kertész, following him from early Hungarian work through late American recognition and reading the oeuvre across decades.publishersweekly+2
Archival richness: Albers mines interviews and archival materials to uncover experiences that Kertész’s own images and reminiscences tend to obscure, including trench warfare trauma, Holocaust losses, and complicated romantic entanglements.patriciaalbers+1
Integration of life and work: The study persistently links biography to visual practice, showing how specific social worlds (e.g., Parisian avant-garde circles, Condé Nast, MoMA) shaped both the making and reception of his photographs.citylights+2
Nuanced character portrait: Kertész appears as gentle and generous yet also resentful, prone to grievance, and sometimes deceptive, resisting both hagiography and dismissal.otherpress+3
Contextualizing influence: Reviewers praise the way Albers situates Kertész among peers like Brassaï and Robert Capa, clarifying lines of influence, rivalry, and mentorship within modern photography.otherpress+2
Sheer density and length: At 544 pages, the narrative can feel exhaustive; general readers may experience sections—especially detailed professional or social networks—as slow or over-packed.publishersweekly+2
Emphasis on narrative over theory: While formally alert, the book is primarily a historical biography rather than a work of photographic theory, so readers seeking sustained theoretical framing of modernism or visuality may find that underdeveloped.patriciaalbers+1
Heroic framing risk: In arguing for Kertész as foundational, the account may underplay competing genealogies of modern photography and risks re‑centering a single (male, European) figure as “father” of the field.otherpress+2
Limited critical distance on canonization: Because part of the project is recuperative—bringing Kertész back to prominence—the narrative can sometimes feel closer to rehabilitation than to a thorough critique of how canons are formed.otherpress+2
Genre: Scholarly yet accessible biography of a major 20th‑century photographer, grounded in archival research and close visual analysis.publishersweekly+2
Use-value:
For historians and critics: a detailed case study of how one photographer’s life intersects with larger political and media histories.
For practitioners and students of photography: a long, reflective demonstration of how formal innovation, personal history, and technological change (the Leica, magazines, MoMA retrospectives) interlock.citylights+3