Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past – Antique Found Photographs with Evocative Inscriptions by Ransom Riggs

I enjoyed this "photo album" so immensely I immediately sent a digital gift of it to my mother. It's so incredibly human, proving that our emotions, struggles, joys, sorrows, and laughs are timeless, bonds that reach across decades, even centuries, to tie us together in the experience of life. Ransom Riggs is a rare historian capturing this fragile record of our collective memories, and I applaud his dedication to keeping this rapidly vanishing resource alive. TALKING PICTURES goes from hilarious to heartbreaking and back again, plus everthything in between. It's as fun to flip through as a family album - only more poignant and irreverent. These resurrected bits of rubbish depict *real* people, are real photos, snapped with purpose, only to become a swirling pile leaves fallen from the family tree, caught on the winds of change and swept up, rescued, and collected by Riggs and his fellow enthusiasts. I know my own grandparents were guilty of the very crime of tossing out photographs when they moved across the country in '69. I wish I wish they hadn't done that. I'm going to start turning my digital photographs into real physical prints, and writing on them, too. Riggs is right: this is too important to our history to leave to computers, files, memory cards, flash drives, and Facebook! I'll be giving a copy of this book to many people on my list this Holiday season. It's so entertaining and enchanting I want to share it with everyone I know.

From cover to cover, this book is filled with fascinating images that are thought provoking and capture the reader's imagination. The author wisely lets the images and their messages do the "talking" and the reader is left to do the interpretation which is the point of the book. As a collector of such images and similar books in this field, I was not disappointed with the "interestingess" of photos included, the arrangement by theme, and the large number of images included. This is the kind of book that you can pick up again and again and discover something new. Destined to become a classic within the field of found/vernacular photography, this book is a keeper and a must have. In short, this book works and works well. The quality of the reproductions and the printing is very good and for the price it's a real bargain. I purchased additional copies to give as gifts. A sequel to "Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" this book is not (another fascinating book by the way), it was not intended to be. Nor is it an overly wordy or scholarly work on found/vernacular photography, which is a good thing in my opinion. As previously mentioned, the author expertly presents the material and the reader is left to explore the context of each image paired with its message. The images within the book stand on their own and do so superbly. I highly recommend this book, it's a real gem.

When I was a small child in Chicago my parents and I regularly rode the elevated trains through the different neighborhoods. At each stop I could peer across the tracks at people and their back porches and wonder what their lives were like. Whose sled was leaned up on the wall of the porch? Why didn't those people take down their Christmas decorations? Sometimes I would spot a crying child or see what looked like an argument through an apartment window. Or look down on the players on a basketball court- who was playing? Who stood off to the side? What were their conversations about? I enjoyed making up little stories about these "el" people and their lives and wondred what it would be like to be a part of their lives. This collection of photographs gave me the same pleasure. A glimpse into a stranger's life- seeing someone or something that wasn't intended for me to see. Some of the photographs provided a bit of information about what was taking place or what it meant to the subject of the photo. Others raised eerie questions. I enjoyed the book very much and wished that the author had included more photographs. I felt as if I was just getting started when it came to the end.

This book is certainly entertaining. Interesting. Funny, sad, strange, and occasionally downright weird. All of these things and more are accomplished using very few words. That, for me, has always been one of the most amazing things about photos. They have the ability to allow me to step back in time and let my imagination fly. Of course that very ability can be frustrating. I have only a small handful of my family's pictures. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, but my husband's family has tons- and the majority have no inscriptions. His aunt, the only one who could have identified some of them, is now too old to remember. I can't think of a better- or more novel- way of making that point than Mr. Riggs did with this book. Photos, whether ours or someone else's, give us a visual link to the past that mere words cannot. Even if they are of complete strangers, we know that OUR relatives lived back then- saw those cars, wore similar clothing, went through that war. It is scary to think that by putting our family pictures on hard drives or discs instead of paper we might lose scores of family gatherings, Christmas mornings, graduations, and more. And it does happen as anyone who has ever had a hard drive fry can attest to. Something most of us probably wouldn't think about until it was too late.

This is a book of vintage photographs just like it said. I found that even though I really enjoy looking at the photos it's not a book you would pick up and look at again and again. All the photos have captions to them...which the person who took them wrote on the back. I think I would have loved the book had it been a book of vintage photos and maybe a paragraph feom the author that told soke sort of story...or even something silly as a captain. As it was some of the captians I have problems reading and other times I just wanted a little more knowledge of the photo. Grab it is you love looking at old photos again and again skip it if once you've seen the photos you have no interest in looking at them over and over.

I was very pleased with this book. Though I have never 'collected' other peoples discarded photos, most of the photos in the book bore a striking resemblence to the old family albums my parents have kept over the years, many with captions as curious and quaint, sassy and self-deprecating. I'm always taken aback when I consider these were real people with lives and hopes and dreams, and we are given the priviledge of sometimes knowing what the years brought to them, after the photos were taken. It brings mortality home to appreciate how many came before us, stars in their eyes at what their future held, and the years unfolded and time did what time will do. I was especially moved by the grouping of photos of the young girl who died at the age of 10. Somewhere there's a whole story about why someone would choose to dispose of such a touching reminder of the short life of a girl so obviously well loved. Also, the photo of Dorothy at the beginning, who died of leukemia, reminded me of a picture my mother has of her dear cousin who died of leukemia at age 17 back in the late 1940s. She, too, was so beautiful and seemingly full of life. Thank you, Mr. Riggs, for sharing your treasure trove with us.

I wasn't sure what this book would be like when I purchased it but when I started reading it I wasn't able to put it down. What a great idea for a book! The pictures range from interesting and delightful, to funny and bizarre, to poignant, and the author's comments are enlightening. The chapter titled "Janet Lee" is especially touching. My only regret was the book was too short! I was sorry when I got to the end and I hope the author will publish a sequel! After reading this book, I decided I'm going to pull out all my old photos and write on the backs of them while I'm still able to remember the people, the date, and the occasion of the photo for future generations. I highly recommend this book. Great reading!

Love the pictures, some very unusual. Also what is written on the back of some of the photos is very entertaining. My mom enjoyed looked thru the old pictures, and it brought back memories of the past for her. Also, she was chuckling at some of the writtings on the pictures. A fun book to browse thru often.

Ce livre délivre un double message. En premier lieu la lectures des photographies, et le plus difficile pour le connaisseur il s'agit de photographies qui se trouvent dans les albums de famille. Celles que l'un des spécialistes de la photographie de famille Marin Parr nomme "les photographies cucu". Puis le lecteur découvre une deuxième lecture : celle de la légende écrite de ma main même de la personne qui se trouve sur l'image. Cet exercice est déroutant et dérangeant, mais très intructif. Le livre est très bien impimé. J.P.

This book is an interesting way of displaying photographs and more importantly their owners captions from years before. I saw an interview with the author on Canada AM one morning and by the afternoon I had ordered it for a friend for Christmas. When it arrived, I had to do my utmost to restrain breaking the spine as each page had a new treasure...some happy, some sad, some made me laugh, and others making up a story to fit the situation. Ultimately an interesting book that I hope my friend will like!

Interessante Leküre

Bellissima la raccolta di Ransom Riggs per gli appassionati di foto d'epoca. Naturalmente il taglio dellaselezione è tutto suo... se vi piace lo riconoscerete.

An interesting, funny & tragic collection of photographs. The chapter "Janet Lee" following the life & premature death of a little girl, is heart-breaking. I can understand why Ransom uses pictures like these, in his "Miss Peregrine" novels - anyone looking at them, would be left wandering what the story was, behind these pictures, and what has happened to the "original" owners. Where have they gone, and why have the pictures been discarded? Ransom takes it one step further, and creates substance & mystery, from the unknown.