It’s perhaps surprising that among the recent deluge of high-quality nonfiction picture books, few use photography rather than traditional illustration. Wouldn’t photography do an even better job of conveying to children the facts of the world?
Actually, no. Photography is a fantastic way to document life, but it’s not a guarantee of verisimilitude (as anyone surely knows who lost an untold stretch of time recently to puzzling out the blue-and-gold-or-maybe-white conundrum of “the Dress”). Our eyes and minds play tricks on us in every medium and under any circumstance. An illustration can be uncannily accurate, and photography, at its best, is an art like any other.
Read more at The New York Times.
Image source The New York Times.
Leave Your Comment