Friday, September 19, 2014

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past by Ransom Riggs


In a world obsessed with selfies, a picture is just something we take for granted, but photographs weren't always as easy to take and develop as they are today. Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past by Ransom Rigg, the author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, tells various stories using old photographs. If you enjoy human interest stories, have an interest in history, or just love looking at old photographs, this is the book for you. As Riggs mentions in the forward of his book, he has long had an interest in old photographs that he's found at antique stores and resale shops. While questioning how families can just discard a piece of their familial history, Riggs began to buy the old photographs, but only old photographs that had some kind of caption or writing somewhere on them. 

With the sometimes adorable, sometimes quirky, sometimes awkward photos he bought, Riggs tells a story by intertwining pictures of complete strangers into chapters that focus on love, war, and illness, among others. Not only are some of these pictures funny, many are thought provoking, endearing, heartwarming, and some even tug at your heart strings.

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past is a fast read, coffee-table-type book that is sure to make you wonder just exactly who the subjects are in the photographs and what their long lost story actually is.

Check out Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past @ the library.