“Pittsburgh When I’m Hungry”

Karen Lillis

Karen’s Book Row, $25

The French-American photographer Elliott Erwitt, reflecting upon his chosen artform, suggested, “The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” It’s fitting, then, that the poet and novelist Karen Lillis found her latest project, “Pittsburgh When I’m Hungry,” while avoiding writing a short story.

Lillis, who is also a bookseller and publisher, was an art major in college and pursued photography in grad school at New York University and at the International Center of Photography. Setting aside the piece of fiction she was working on, she idly scrolled through her personal archive of photos. “I realized I had all these pictures of restaurants,” she says.

The photographs collected in “Pittsburgh When I’m Hungry” are atypical in that the camera does not linger over mouthwatering entrees or capture diners and waitstaff in action. There are no action shots of hectic and expletive-laden kitchens. In fact, actual human beings rarely appear in these pages. And when they do it’s always a little jarring.

Instead Lillis celebrates the spaces themselves: the tables and booths, signage, light fixtures and cutlery. “I was thinking of the subtitle … as ‘The Architecture of Hospitality.’”

While most of the photos were not taken during the pandemic, the book speaks directly to that uncertain and frightening time. The restaurant industry was deeply and disastrously affected by the pandemic. According to the Washington Post, 90,000 bars and restaurants had closed across the country as of spring 2021.

“For me, it was like if you go to a restaurant and there’s the little condiment caddy, you know, that’s so intentional, something that’s been made for you, something that is catering to your needs,” Lillis says. “I was just more aware of that level of things, like we’re all so needy at different moments in this pandemic era. So to go to a restaurant, you can have that feeling that the whole place has been set up to serve you, to greet you, to interact, to recognize you and your little creature comfort needs. You can’t take that for granted anymore.”

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