PICTUREBOOKS and PHOTOGRAPHY -
an excerpt by Jane Wattenberg from The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks 2017
an excerpt by Jane Wattenberg from The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks 2017
Photography in children’s books has a lineage as long as photography itself. Beginning with the invention and launch of photography this chapter traces the emergence of photographic picturebooks into the mainstream of all picturebooks for children. The subjects, themes, and techniques will be addressed while highlighting the creators themselves and recognizing the influence of history and art movements across the decades. While the majority of picturebooks contain hand-illustrated imagery, photographic picturebooks are replete with photographs or photo-based illustrations. Whether devoid of words or a melding of words and images, a photographic picturebook most often illuminates a sequential narrative and covers a wide spectrum of subjects. Viewed in full color, in partial color or in basic black-and-white, photographic picturebooks span the gamut from photo documented real-life scenes to photo fantasy hybrids employing techniques of photomontage and collage. In this chapter, the terms photographically illustrated picturebook, photo-illustrated picturebook, and photo picturebook are interchangeable. The term photobook refers to all books containing photography, including picturebooks. Photo-illustrated picturebooks differ from hand-illustrated picturebooks in a photograph’s implied associations to authenticity. A photograph mirrors truth – what we see, what we know, how we live. Photographic picturebooks replicate the ordinary and manifest the extraordinary. They inspire social change, provide scientific evidence, offer humor, and evoke emotion. These books range from highly creative to dull and drab. Reality is at the core even as photographs trick the eye, bend truth, and manipulate our assumptions. Even then, the wildly ersatz seems genuine and reliable. With agility, photography in children’s books leaps believably from document to dreams. Early photography The year 1839 marks the date of the first successful photographs. In the exploratory spirit of the Victorian era, visionary scientists, artists, and lens makers together launched the art of photography; harnessing light and mirroring landscapes. These are the unheralded partners of the most celebrated inventors of photography – Nicéphore Niépce, Henry Fox Talbot, Louis Daguerre, and Hippolyte Bayard.......... (continued in The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks 2017) ....... |