Photo Novellas

Posted in Photobooks (general) by Alec Soth on January 25, 2010

I’d like to compile a list of quality photo novellas and photo comic books. Can you help?

28 comments

28 Responses

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Kristen Fecker Peroni said, on January 25, 2010 at 10:00 am

Heroicomic by Joyce Neimanas
Actually, she created three series working with the comic book format, but I believe (and I could be mistaken) that only one was printed in comic book format.
http://joyceneimanasartist.com/

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Ron Jude said, on January 25, 2010 at 10:05 am

Fools on Hills, by Till Gerhard. Published by Decathlon Books.

If you collect books and zines, you must have this one. Fantastic.

http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=ZD955&i=&i2=&CFID=6400684&CFTOKEN=52890304

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 10:28 am

http://www.nightzero.com/

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Sebastien Girard said, on January 25, 2010 at 10:36 am

Anotonio Caballero is a very interesting mexican photographer.
He has made some photographs for more than 500 foto novelas between 1963 et 1978.
An exciting book published few years ago by Toluca : Las rutas de la pasión.

http://www.galeriepolaris.com/artistes.php?id=37&photo=380

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Whiskets said, on January 25, 2010 at 11:24 am

There is a companion book to Chris Marker’s La Jetee from Zone Books which is good.

Not really what you’re looking for but there is also a book of film stills from Fritz Lang’s M which follows the film’s storyline and also includes incredible behind the scenes photos. All done large format. It was done by Hatier, the French publisher in 1990 I think. Not super sexy as a book in design or printing but the photos are amazing. I think they did a hardcover and soft edition.

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 11:26 am

Sebastiesn! Thanks so much. I’ve been looking all over for that link.

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John said, on January 25, 2010 at 11:59 am

Comic book for a charity – 2 in 1 !!
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/events/exhibits/thephotographer/

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 12:05 pm

I think this issue had one, IIRC

Dark Horse Presents #152

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/98-383/Dark-Horse-Presents-152

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 12:09 pm

Nyoka the Jungle Girl was one from ’80s that used film stillls from a movie in the ’40s to tell a story.

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 12:29 pm

BTW, this may help you. The style you are looking for, at least as it relates to comics, is Fumetti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fumetti

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 12:32 pm

Nocturene

http://www.sleepinggiantcreations.com/comics-ogns/nocturne/index.html

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James Luckett said, on January 25, 2010 at 12:49 pm

two books by Arthur Tress:

Shadow: a novel in photographs
Requiem for A Paperweight

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bob black said, on January 25, 2010 at 1:06 pm

shadowraith….check out the publisher The House Of Murky Depths

by the way, for me, the original version of Moriyama’s NY 71…..he published/printed it himself by using a Xerox in midtown and literally photocopying the pics and stabling them together…i’ve seen one…i’ve also seen some of Araki’s xerox books…..

they’ve been a big inspiration….the Moriyama Xerox ’71 kills….not even close to the same experience as the reprint…

cheers
b

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Kirk T said, on January 25, 2010 at 1:19 pm

I think I’ll pick that up myself, bob. Great suggestion.

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Aaron Dill said, on January 25, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Kind of a different category, but the “Knuffle Bunny” series of children’s books uses color illustrations over photo backgrounds to good effect.

Aaron

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Alec Soth said, on January 25, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Thanks for all of the great responses and leads. Anotonio Caballero looks like a treasure trove. Wish I could see the Fritz Lang book. Can’t seem to find it online. Sort of reminds me of the Red Balloon book I bought yesterday:

http://littlebrownmushroom.tumblr.com/post/351238332/2-childrens-photo-books-1956-1932

And I love that John got the 2 for 1. I own that book (The Photographer) but haven’t had time to get through it. But I’m happy to know that Angelina Jolie loved it:

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/events/exhibits/thephotographer/the-book-reviews.cfm

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john gossage said, on January 26, 2010 at 5:28 am

Alec,

Germaine Krull did a very cool one with Georges Simenon called “La Folle D’Itteville” a murder mystery illustrated pocket book with all set up pictures to follow the story in 1931. They offer a second book on the back cover that appears to have never been done.
Sorry to say it’s very expensive these days.

JG

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Kate P said, on January 27, 2010 at 9:40 am

Another great children’s photo book, though slightly different format from the Red Balloon, is the Lonely Doll by Dare Wright. Glamorous, playful and a little bit scary.

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J said, on January 27, 2010 at 12:26 pm

I’m not sure if this is exactly what you’re looking for, but its a great photo-comic collaboration anyway:
http://www.asofterworld.com/
Emily Horne and Joey Comeau

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Ian G said, on January 27, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Hi Little Brown Mushroom,

You might like this. It’s not a book, not in print, nor photographic, nor a novella…but it could be all of those in your hands.

I remember seeing a really wacky Buckminster Fuller book that you read forwards and then rotated and read backwards. It used photos and was certainly creative, though more non-fiction than a novella.

best

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Jan Vandemoortele said, on January 28, 2010 at 2:56 pm

In the early eighties Belgian artist Marie-Francoise Plissart made several ‘romans-photo’
‘Fugues’ (1983)
‘Prague’ (1985)
http://www.argentic.fr/product-6037.html
with – French – texts by her partner Benoit Peeters

‘Droit de Regards’ (1985)
http://www.leseditionsdeminuit.eu/f/index.php?sp=liv&livre_id=1775
no text between the photod, but an essay by Jacques Derrida at the back of the book

They’re in black and white and have a very ‘eighties’-feeling.

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Diran Sirinian said, on January 30, 2010 at 12:02 pm

Hi Alec. I just picked up this photomagazine, printed in gelatin silver, which has a hint of photo novellas, no evident plot. Just wanted to share it and hear thoughts.

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Alec Soth said, on January 31, 2010 at 12:39 am

Great find Diran. I love the fact that the images look so narrative but are missing the plot. Fantastic.

Alec

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Stuart Alexander said, on January 31, 2010 at 8:08 am

More a collage novel than a photo roman, I like Graham Rawle’s book. ‘Diary of an Amateur Photographer’, London: Penguin Studio, 1998. 128 pp.
ISBN 0670877751, 978067087775
http://www.grahamrawle.com/amateurphotographer/index.html

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robert blu said, on February 1, 2010 at 3:42 pm

I suggest “The Tower Bridge e altri racconti fotografici” by Matteo Terzaghi and Marco Zuercher , Galleria Edizioni Periferia, mail@periferia.ch

The two authors collect old pictures from old album, markets, friends etc. Than they assemble a “story” which could be illustrated by thoese images.

robert

http://www.periferia.ch/index.php?idcatside=14&10idcatsideback=49&10startmonth=3&10monthback=-1&10idarticle=65&10category=25

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Diran Sirinian said, on February 3, 2010 at 12:37 pm

I found a lesbian photo novella published in Barcelona by Imprenta Layetana, en erotic literature editor in work between 1925 and the beginning of the Civil War. The title is number 2 of the Lesbos Library, “with fifty natural photographs” reads the dustjacket. The author: Lilian Edith. No stated date; I’d guess late 1920s.
Take a look:

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Marc said, on February 26, 2010 at 2:34 am

Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe did two great little photo-novellas for kids with Betty Jean Lifton in the 1960s.
‘A Dog’s Guide to Tokyo’ and ‘Taka-chan and I’.
http://www.bjlifton.com/dogsguide.htm
There’s some extra info about ‘Taka-chan and I’ here http://www.maggs.com/i/maggs/catalogues/1420-PhotoBooks.pdf

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Alec said, on February 26, 2010 at 2:00 pm

I really appreciate this info on Hosoe. Thanks Marc.

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