Beckett, Proust, and the Darkroom

The use of photography in Beckett and Proust makes evident a parallel relationship between the two writers. Through a reading of Beckett's self-image and the treatment of photography in his work, one can provide a more unified view of Beckett the writer and of Beckett's image as a writer. Beckett's model was Proust, a writer who similarly favored photography. In many photographs, Beckett presented to viewers and readers an image unlike that promoted by his biographers or texts: aloof, reticent, recalcitrant and withdrawn. Frequently and directly, he faced the camera and, despite his pursuit of privacy and isolation, paradoxically provided a variety of photographers access to both his Paris apartment and Paris life. The construction of his own iconography and use of photography in his work, adopted from Proust (subject of his first book), are explored through similarities between A la recherche du temps perdu and Beckett's texts, as well as Beckett's Film.