Back in November I speculated as to whether or not a book containing photography, and just photography, could ever win a Caldecott Award. Today my thoughts turn elsewhere.
Just yesterday I sat in on the Penguin Young Readers Group librarian preview for the May-August 2011 season (round-up to come). The folks there had to go over a wide variety of books and in the course of the discussion we came upon an adorable picture book by the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Yup. John Berendt himself. Normally I don’t truck with adult authors who try to weasel their way into the lucrative children’s market, but that’s usually because all their books sound the same. Either they’re doing a younger version of what they usually write or they place a slight twist on Alice in Wonderland/The Wizard of Oz. Nine times out of ten this is the case. Berendt . . . he’s different. First off, it’s hard to accuse him of the flaws of his fellows when the title of his book is something as innocuous as My Baby Blue Jays.
(By the way, during the last Simon & Schuster preview I took one look at Liz Scanlon’s Noodle & Lou and proclaimed that, “It is my personal opinion, as it has been for years, that blue jays are a seriously unappreciated species of bird. Seriously, name me all the famous blue jay picture book characters you can.” The universe, which has a twisted sense of humor, has now handed me a whole new blue jay product just to watch me squirm under my own words.)
What does any of this have to do with today’s topic of Photography & Fiction? Well, outside Mr. Berendt’s window sat a nest of blue jays, so he figured he’d photograph them and add in his own, as the catalog calls it, “narrative skill”. Skill aside, this book is considered nonfiction. Staring at the book in the catalog got me to thinking. Nonfiction. Most photography in children’s books could be classified as nonfiction in a way. We see a lot of them appear each season. They do not lack. But what about picture books that use photography and are fictional? How common are they? How often does one run across them? Children love photos, after all. So why are they so often relegated to the informative Tana Hoban / baby board book areas of the library?
This question doesn’t come entirely out of the blue. Recently I met for lunch with an author/illustrator who told me that he was seeking out fictional picture books of this sort. They are rare. Sometimes it seems as though Nina Crews is the only person who’ll touch the genre with so much as a ten foot p
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“He doesn’t do hand-crafted models per say…”
You’re killing me. It’s PER SE.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/per+se
Yup. I do that pretty regularly. Mental block. Latin is not my friend.
Growing up I adored Jill Krementz’s A Very young Dancer was a non-fictiony look at a real dancer’s daily life told through text and photos. (She went on to write and photograph many more in that series). I was drawn to the immediacy of the images and would linger on those images studying every detail.
It would be great to see a fictional picture book use photographs of real kids (rather than, say, photos of clay/food models). I’m wondering if the lack of this pairing is because this sort of project would have to be delivered to the editor/agent as a complete packag. When a writer/illustrator subs text with illustrations there is always room to edit both text and illustrations. This would be less so for a project delivered with already shot photos. Just wondering, here. But I do love this idea and think I may just explore it myself!
Two thoughts:
1. I’m not sure how widely known it is, but fiction picture book Lost in the Woods by Carl Sams and Jean Stoick is pretty much a school library staple here in Michigan. The pair have collaborated on other titles as well – they call them “photographic fantasies”. My students love them.
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Woods-Photographic-Carl-Sams/dp/product-description/0967174880/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
2. Have you checked out the Spring list from Feiwel & Friends? Princess Zelda and the Frog by Carol Gardner and Shane Young uses photographs with illustrated backgrounds.
http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Zelda-Frog-Carol-Gardner/dp/0312603258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299081971&sr=1-1
I’d have to agree, there really aren’t that many fictional picture books/early readers that use photography. I do have one set that uses photography (Real Kids Readers by Marcia Leonard), but I’ve noticed that when the kids look at these they tend to assume the book is nonfiction.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull.
I would think that books including photographs of people would be too specific for fiction, especially if faces are shown. You can generalize a watercolor or cartoon to “stand-in” for your friends and family, but a photo only represents the person in the photo. That’s why we see animal stand-in in the first place, they can be very specific characters but still apply broadly.
Usually, I don’t like illustrations in word books. The details in the pictures are almost always wrong for me, and the dissonance is distracting. The pictures remove a level of intimacy.
Oh my goodness, Betsy. My 45-year-old original copy of EDITH AND MR. BEAR (A Lonely Doll Story) still sits on my shelf. The photography enchanted me then as it does still today.
I was so interested to see this post, just when I was thinking about this topic. I’ve been trying to convince my lovely artist/photographer sister (http://ann-mariehensleyphotography.blogspot.com/) to pursue illustration–and then I realized I was probably setting her up to do the impossible. Or at least the Pretty Darn Near.
My daughter, age 10, is the kind of kid who will always take photography over illustration. I was never like that, so it fascinates me to watch her choose books. I think she’d love fiction with artistic photo illustrations as much as she loves those “I Spy” books and wildlife field guides she reads.
I have been following this conversation with great interest because my talented photographer boyfriend and I have been collaborating on book-photography art projects (http://oliverscottphotography.tumblr.com/post/968875153/now-on-display)and we are dying to take it one step further and write/illustrate a children’s book. Know anyone who wants to give us a book deal?
I’m sure I’m biased because of my involvement with the field, but I really believe that photography and video will be coming to the forefront of the illustrating world in the 21st century as technology keeps expanding. (Don’t get me wrong, I love all illustration!) At any rate, thanks for keeping this topic fresh in people’s minds!
Wiggle Giggle Tickle Train by Nora Hilb and Sharon Jennings is a combination of photography and illustration. The photographs are by Marcela Cabezas Hilb with a few from iStockphoto. We have a few preschool children that are absolutely fascinated by it.
Just thought of another one – The Handiest Things in the World by Andrew Clements (of Frindle fame, of course). It is all photographs (by Raquel Jaramillo), lots of real children (and a dog and a snowman). Its an honest-to-goodness picture book – and it rhymes!