'The Global Library Project' is a Photographic Love Letter to the Written Word

The Global Library Project is a stirring photography exhibit that acts as a love letter to librarians, to the written word, and to histories preserved. (That it’s on show at San Francisco’s main public library should come as no surprise.)

Photographer Robert Dawson‘s adoration for all things bibliophilic was previously documented in 2014’s The Public Library: A Photographic Essay book, in which he documented libraries across America. Now, in collaboration with his wife, photo historian Ellen Manchester, Dawson has begun documenting libraries around the world.

Whether it’s the palatial Wiblingen Library in Ulm, Germany, or an open air library for refugees in a downtrodden part of Tel Aviv, no library is off-limits for this San Francisco couple. In this new exhibit, on view through Nov. 13, Dawson and Manchester capture the warmth inside these community spaces and, frequently, the pride each institution has for its location. But the thing that truly elevates Dawson and Manchester’s work is their knack for presenting every library as essential and even sacred.

By expanding his scope beyond American borders, Dawson’s camera now carries the weight of old conflicts that have played out across European history. It’s clear throughout The Global Library Project that the battles beyond library walls can’t help but impact what’s inside them. One striking example from the Palestinian Nablus Public Library: a book with a cube neatly cut out of its center—a space where Palestinian people imprisoned in Israel could exchange personal notes and information. In Belgium, the charred remains of old books stand as a reminder of when Leuven’s Library of the Catholic University was burned to the ground by Nazis.

Indeed, the fallout from World War II and the Nazi decimation of the Jewish people reoccurs in The Global Library Project. In Poland, we see synagogues that became libraries when there were no more Jews to frequent them. From Israel’s National Library, the story of a World War I veteran who kept a torah with him in a World War II concentration camp—disguised as his wooden leg. In Berlin, there’s The Empty Library—a memorial to the thousands of books lost to Nazi book burnings.

Sometimes, the libraries stand as symbols for what is no longer there. Today in Germany, for example, two libraries serve the exact same community. They are positioned close together because they were once separated by the Berlin wall. At Oświęcim—more commonly known as Auschwitz—Dawson and Manchester capture a library that makes no mention of the atrocities that took place there during the second world war. Though jarred by the erasure, the couple is careful to note: “The library was built to forget.”

Ultimately, Dawson and Manchester take the viewer on a fascinating trip that touches down in Canada, Russia, France, Greece, Italy, and even through the library ruins of Pompeii. Together, the resulting photographs make for a moving journey full of human resilience, intellect, and the determination it takes to document and catalog it all for future generations.

‘The Global Library Project’ is on display at San Francisco Main Library’s Jewett Gallery through Nov. 13. Exhibition details here.