Talking Pictures

“I’m absolutely fascinated by Ransom Riggs’s [series] Talking Pictures—themed collections of found photographs that happen to have writing on them. Usually, there’s just enough written to make each image more powerful, and leave you wanting more.”
—Boingboing.com

Growing up in South Florida—the land of junk stores, garage sales and big-tent flea markets—Ransom Riggs collected pictures of people he didn’t know. Searching through endless dusty aisles of old stuffed animals, mismatched dishes, and needlepoint portraits, Riggs would find boxes of yellowing snapshots, discarded by old folks who had died or children who hadn’t seen fit to save them. As hundreds of unknown faces from unknown locals stared back at him, Riggs found himself searching a particular kind of photograph—those with writing on the back or sides.

Talking Pictures is a stunning collection of found images from the past—men, women, and children pulled from obscurity, posing for unknown cameraman. Yet, upon closer inspection, each image reveals something greater—an inscription that has the ability to open up a new world. In Talking Pictures Riggs shows us how a few scribbled lines can turn a blurry black-and-white snapshot of people who seem a million miles and a million years away into an intensely personal sliver of experience that anyone can relate to. Grouped into categories like “Love and Marriage,” “Road Trip,” “Clowning Around,” and “The Dead,” the images reveal secrets, express pain and longing, and capture moments of honesty like no other medium. With a single phrase, each haunting image becomes something not just to look at, but to listen to.

The author of the runaway New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs holds an MFA in film production from the USC School of Cinema-Television. A former journalist, photographer, and documentary film editor, his award-winning short films have screened at more than 70 film festivals worldwide. He is also a contributing writer and blogger for mental_floss magazine and Mentalfloss.com.

With the candid quirkiness of Awkward Family Photos and the confessional intimacy of PostSecret, Ransom Riggs's Talking Pictures is a haunting collection of antique found photographs--with evocative inscriptions that bring these lost personal moments to life--from the author of the New York Times bestselling illustrated novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Each image in Talking Pictures reveals a singular, frozen moment in a person's life, be it joyful, quiet, or steeped in sorrow. Yet the book's unique depth comes from the writing accompanying each photo: as with the caption revealing how one seemingly random snapshot of a dancing couple captured the first dance of their 40-year marriage, each successive inscription shines like a flashbulb illuminating a photograph's particular context and lighting up our connection to the past.

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