Photos Are Real, Aren't They?

Artists have used photographs in Picture-Book illustrations for decades. Forty-five years ago, Albert Lamorisse published The Red Balloon (Doubleday) and that same year Dare Wright's The Lonely Doll (both Doubleday, 1957) debuted, the first in a series of cozy adventures built around posed photos of a doll named Edith. In the 1970s, Tana Hoban began exploring the creative possibilities of using photography with concepts, and has continued to break new ground ever since. Margaret Miller's guessing games, Bruce McMillan's creative concept books, and the multicultural series by Ann Morris and Ken Heyman also stand out among the best examples of picture-book photography. All use the realistic quality of the medium to help readers look at the world around them from new angles.

In recent years, we've seen many talented artists use photography to juxtapose the real world with imaginary ones in surprising ways. Computer technology allows artists to integrate photographs with other media, creating new twists on reality. Other creators apply straight photography to construct in imaginative ways subjects that challenge perceptions and engage curiosity. And many continue to use more conventional photography to tell stories and introduce concepts with thoughtfully arranged images.

The "real" qualities of photography actually make it a perfect vehicle for fantasy, as shown in George Ancona's collaborations with author Joan Anderson. In Richie's Rocket (Morrow, 1993; o.p.), conventional shots show the title character and his homemade rocket. When the vehicle takes off, Ancona combines NASA space photos with his own to illustrate the story. The incongruity of the homemade rocket against the outer-space background accentuates the fantastic nature of the boy's adventure. Subtle tinting distinguishes the magical adventure from the regular photographs used before and after his trip.

Lisa Maizlish's The Ring (Greenwillow, 1996) also uses the medium to depict an enchanted flight. A boy finds a ring that lets him fly above the New York City skyline. When he lands, he leaves the ring for the next child. The wordless narrative is neatly structured by photographic choices. Scenes shift from black and white to color as the boy takes off, denoting the move into magical happenings. Varied perspectives of protagonist and the city bring genuine excitement to his flight. When it ends, the image of the bright-yellow ring clearly leads viewers' eyes to grasp the satisfying conclusion without using a word.

In Nina Crews's You Are Here (Greenwillow, 1998), two girls take a miniaturized adventure around their house. Mixing photos of the kids with those of enlarged plants, books, and other household items creates an intriguing fantasy world. Combining the "realness" of the photographic medium with a magical journey mirrors and expands the theme of imagination that is crucial to the story.

Christopher Myers mixes photography with original collage art to create the dreamlike world of Black Cat (Scholastic, 1999). Photos of subway seats, chain-link fences, and other city details contrast with cut-and-painted objects. Myers paints over some photographs, while other scenes show straightforward shots with the cut-paper cat the lone addition, producing visual surprises on every page. The result is a unique cityscape that seems realistic and fantastical at the same time, which is a perfect backdrop for the cat's poetic journey.

Collaged photographs can also be used to humorous effect. In Dav Pilkey's Kat Kong and Dogzilla (both Harcourt, 1993), the author plants pictures of his own pets into satirical versions of classic horror stories. The "giant" dog among the mice and painted city scenes is clearly a pleasant-looking corgi, which fits perfectly with Pilkey's tongue-in-cheek, joke-filled narrative.

Jane Wattenberg's version of Henny-Penny (Scholastic, 2000) features animal photographs against a wildly varied backdrop that fits perfectly with the silliness of the tale. Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt appear, along with a series of directional signs, a swimming pool, and landscapes ranging from desert to forest. Amid the comedy, youngsters also see the king's crown on most pages that effectively leads to the climactic meeting with Foxy-Loxy. While enhancing the humor and matching the tone of the text, the photographs also help carry the strong narrative of the folktale.

While collaged photographs open up new possibilities for picture-book illustration, Walter Wick uses single shots of sometimes mind-boggling scenes in creative ways. He teams with Jean Marzollo for the hugely successful "I Spy" series, in which readers spot hidden objects within elaborately laid out scenes. The creative elements that go into each spread move these books beyond the game element. I Spy School Days (1995), for instance, offers clever alphabet and number challenges, a "balloon popper" worthy of Rube Goldberg, and an ingenious introduction to Venn diagrams. Walter Wick's Optical Tricks (1998) adds a new wrinkle to the optical-illusion field by using photographs, rather than drawings, to fool the eye. In Can You See What I See? (2002, Scholastic), Wick combines elements from both areas, with elaborate "spot the object" rhymes that end with various puzzles, including mazes, matching games, and an optical illusion.

Continuing the notion that photographic reality can be tricky, Joan Steiner and photographer Thomas Lindley use an incredible range of materials to create scenes that are not as they first appear in Look-Alikes (1998) and Look-Alikes Jr. (1999, both Little, Brown). A coffeepot train engine adorned with pencils, tacks, and two kinds of compasses is one of many fascinating examples. While readers try to detect the ordinary objects within the scenes, they also must appreciate the ingenuity that went into creating them. As with Walter Wick's Optical Tricks, the fact that they are photographs rather than drawings makes the mind-fooling experience that much more effective.

We've seen photographs of children used to convey emotions in other picture books, but Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers somehow manage to do it with fruits and vegetables in How Are You Peeling? (Scholastic, 1999). Filled with amazingly expressive sculptured plants, the frustrated oranges and jealous tomatoes capture the moods perfectly, lifting the title beyond novelty status. Follow-up titles that use similar plants in narrative stories such as Gus and Button (Scholastic, 2001) show a limitation of the technique: it's hard to get involved in a narrative flow when the eye wants to marvel at the features of each lifelike mushroom and artichoke.

Mixed-media techniques and elaborate manipulation of figures expand the potential of picture-book photography, but many photo artists continue to tell stories with more conventional images. Miela Ford builds deceptively simple stories around photos of zoo animals. In Follow the Leader (Greenwillow, 1996), well-chosen action shots of a polar bear pair are neatly arranged into a simple story of friendship. There's minimal text, but the series of pictures provide just enough structure to make a story. Without resorting to gimmicky poses, Ford sets the animals in situations to which the intended audience of youngest children can relate.

David Ellwand's Big Book of Beautiful Babies (Dutton, 1996) is one of the most successful examples of baby appeal in picture-book photography. Softly textured, black-and-white photos accompany the rhythmic, rhyming text. The babies seem purely natural, and the black background sets off each scene with contrast to catch the eye and focus of toddlers. The striking look of the pages lends unity to the series of photographs, and the Mylar mirror at the end neatly brings the baby reader into the book with the other infants.

With outstanding photographs by Nic Bishop, Joy Cowley's Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Scholastic, 1999) straddles the line between nonfiction and story. The sparse text takes readers through the animal's day and offers a few factual tidbits. The pictures capture the frog so vividly, though, that it comes alive as a character, enhancing the information that is conveyed. From a two-page spread showing the amphibian in mid-leap to a concluding trio of shots in which its eyes slowly close, the progression of images builds a compelling narrative, while the crystal-clear photographs present the physical features of the frog and its world in a memorable way.

The obvious reality of the photographed world makes the medium a natural fit for concept books. Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, and Spheres (Greenwillow, 2000) is one example of Tana Hoban's creativity in this area. Photography allows her to present the sophisticated shapes that may be new to young children in accessible ways. Some of the wordless pages feature one or two of such distinctively shaped objects as ice-cream cones and sugar cubes, while a castle scene features all of them.

Myles Pinkney combines color concepts with the broader multiethnic theme of Sandra Pinkney's text in A Rainbow All Around Me (2002). Brightly colored clothes and props in the vivid photographs of children identify each color, while scenes showing several kids together reinforce the celebration of human diversity. In Shades of Black (2000, both Scholastic), the pair pay tribute to African-American children. Skin, hair, and eyes are tied to various objects held by the kids, so the concepts of color and texture work concurrently with the larger message.

In another variation on standard concept books, Stephen Swinburne uses words and photos to explain the basics of shadows in the first half of Guess Whose Shadow? (Boyds Mills, 1999). He then shifts to a more interactive approach, presenting photographs of shadows and inviting readers to guess the figures that cause them. This informational/guessing-game format also works as a learning tool in his What's Opposite? and What's a Pair? What's a Dozen? (both Boyds Mills, 2000) and demonstrates that there is still plenty of room for innovation in concept-book photography.

From crawling babies to children in flight, from optical mysteries to coffeepot trains, the best picture-book photographers find new and creative ways to turn still images of the real world into picture books that instruct, illuminate, and delight.