Children’s books

My three-year-old daughter loves books. Some of her favourites are “Lost and Found” and “Up and Down” by Oliver Jeffers. Because she likes them so much, I started paying attention to them myself and became fascinated with the illustrations and how masterfully they complement the story.

At first, I could not quite put my finger on what makes Jeffers’ images so special. Now, I think that it is how he uses negative space. Both in his text and pictures, what is not shown (or said) is at least as important as what is.

Couple of days ago, I came across Jeffers’ “Once Upon an Alphabet” at a bookstore and liked it so much that I had to buy it, even though it is still too advanced for my daughter’s age. This made me think that books and illustrations (as well as music) that are originally aimed at children and span several generations are probably some of the most important contributions to society that an artist (or writer, or musician) can make, because the audience is at its most perceptive and innocent state.

Not being so presumptuous as to aim for “a giant leap for mankind” with my photographs, as an experiment, I will try to (a) look for subjects/themes that a child could relate to and (b) work more with negative space in my composition.