"I have always loved reading, so was interested in the literary world, and took many literary portraits"
About this Quote
A little too modestly, Fay Godwin frames her turn toward writers as a simple chain of affection: she loved books, so she drifted toward the “literary world,” so she made “many literary portraits.” The understatement is doing work. It positions her not as a hired camera circling celebrity, but as a reader with a passport - someone whose access is earned through curiosity and shared culture rather than industry hustle. “Always loved reading” isn’t a fun fact; it’s a credential. Godwin is quietly telling you her portraits come from literacy as much as from technique.
The phrase “the literary world” also carries a whiff of distance: a social ecosystem with hierarchies, rituals, and gatekeepers. Godwin’s interest reads like an entry point that’s intellectual, not deferential. She’s drawn to the world behind the work - the authors as working minds, not just jacket photos.
“Took” is the key verb. Not “shot,” not “captured,” not “made.” “Took” suggests both pragmatism and possession: a photographer’s job is to extract an image, but Godwin’s tone implies something less predatory than purposeful. It matches her wider practice, where landscape and place often feel observed with patience rather than conquered. In the context of late-20th-century British culture, when writers were increasingly mediated as public personalities, Godwin’s line reads as a subtle refusal of the hype cycle: her literary portraits originate in reading, and that origin story insists the camera can still be an extension of attention, not promotion.
The phrase “the literary world” also carries a whiff of distance: a social ecosystem with hierarchies, rituals, and gatekeepers. Godwin’s interest reads like an entry point that’s intellectual, not deferential. She’s drawn to the world behind the work - the authors as working minds, not just jacket photos.
“Took” is the key verb. Not “shot,” not “captured,” not “made.” “Took” suggests both pragmatism and possession: a photographer’s job is to extract an image, but Godwin’s tone implies something less predatory than purposeful. It matches her wider practice, where landscape and place often feel observed with patience rather than conquered. In the context of late-20th-century British culture, when writers were increasingly mediated as public personalities, Godwin’s line reads as a subtle refusal of the hype cycle: her literary portraits originate in reading, and that origin story insists the camera can still be an extension of attention, not promotion.
Quote Details
| Topic | Book |
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