One of the childhood books I grew up that I’ve found revisiting as an adult is The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. As a fun photo narrative project, I decided to recreate this story using found objects to re-illustrate this classic tale.
A little peak behind the scenes
VERSION #1
This first started off because I was fond of the idea of creating a physical book about a book itself, so began prototyping concepts around the idea of favorite childhood books. I began by gathering photos of my subjects with their favorite books, children and adults alike.
VERSION #2
I also tried placing my subjects into their favorite childhood books. My subjects were ecstatic to relive parts of their childhood.
"I've always wanted to escape inside my favorite children's book"
Dr. Seuss - All the Places You'll Go!
Where the Wild Things Are
With multiple different stories weaved into one book, it was hard to maintain a cohesive narrative voice.
Final Iteration
At this point, I decided instead to focus my efforts on one book as a channel to explore some concepts that interested me- time, change, and memory. I delved into the classic childhood book, The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.
Through the placement of artifacts, the book conceptualizes a few universal themes of growing up- exploration, validation, loneliness
Happy browsing :)