A Bookstore in the Gallery

Taken in Bruxelles with a Leica M9, this photograph is as much about the atmosphere of a winter evening as it is about the subject itself. The bookseller, wrapped in a red scarf, is absorbed in the simple act of handling a book — a gesture that feels timeless, insulated from the passing crowd outside. The “Joyeuses Fêtes” decoration strung above her offers a seasonal frame, hinting at the warmth inside against the cold beyond the window.

The composition is direct and frontal, using the shelves of books as both background and structure. The vertical and horizontal lines create order, their rhythm occasionally broken by a tilted spine or a small festive ornament, which stops the frame from becoming rigid. Placing the bookseller slightly off-centre keeps the image balanced while leaving room for the visual density of the stacked volumes to the left.

Technically, the Leica M9’s sensor renders the warm indoor light faithfully, though the mix of artificial illumination and the reflective glass surface requires careful handling. Here, some softness is present, particularly around the subject’s hands in motion, but it works rather than detracts, suggesting quiet activity rather than a staged pose. The exposure leans towards preserving the highlights in the white book spines, which avoids blowing them out but leaves the shadows in the lower corners slightly murky — a reasonable trade-off given the constraints of shooting through glass in low light.

What the image offers is not a sterile catalogue of a shop, but a vignette — an intersection between public display and private moment, rendered with enough imperfection to feel real.