Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
279th out of 395 books
—
364 voters
Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past
by
Ransom Riggs
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...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
October 16th 2012
by It Books
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,996)
I am admittedly a huge fan of vintage ephemera (a quick glance at my Pinterest profile will confirm this), so it's no surprise to me that I wound up loving this collection of "found" photographs. Ransom Riggs (of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" fame) is a collector of vintage photos, many of them dug up from antique stores and flea markets. Their original owners are unknown, as are their settings, subjects and contexts. The only clues to these photos are the inscriptions written on...more
Ransom Riggs wrote Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Probably the best part of that book were the unusual and sometimes creepy pictures the story was built around. Mr. Riggs collects "lost pictures".
He tells us the story of the first photo he bought from a bin of miscellaneous photos in a junk shop when he was 13. Pictures dumped, spilled and torn from albums, frames and wallets with no information except for the words scribbled on them. He bought the first and then some years later b...more
He tells us the story of the first photo he bought from a bin of miscellaneous photos in a junk shop when he was 13. Pictures dumped, spilled and torn from albums, frames and wallets with no information except for the words scribbled on them. He bought the first and then some years later b...more
You have to take a look at this book. I can try to tell you how amazing it is, how each page gives you a glimpse into some stranger's life through a window you haven't been invited to view, like driving down a street at night and glimpsing snippets of people through their lighted windows. But here you get a fuller story, or enough to goad you into filling in what's missing. I could try to tell you how heart-wrenching some of these partly-told stories can be, but it won't be very convincing. You...more
5 likes · like · see review
view all 5 comments
Cuando terminé de leer El hogar de Miss Peregrine para niños peculiares, la novela ilustrada con fotografías reales de Ransom Riggs, pensé que la falta de coherencia entre las imágenes y la historia era un punto negativo que pesaba mucho sobre el resultado final pero que, al mismo tiempo, la afición del autor a coleccionar fotos antiguas lo convertía en un hombre interesante.
Talking Pictures es un libro de fotografía diferente. Las imágenes están divididas en siete bloques: Haciendo el payaso, A...more
Talking Pictures es un libro de fotografía diferente. Las imágenes están divididas en siete bloques: Haciendo el payaso, A...more
Ransom Riggs scores with Talking Pictures-Images and Messages Rescued From The Past. This quirky collection of photos is akin to his first collection, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. Riggs is masterful in his selections, at times leaving the reader in complete awe at the images before their eyes. Haunting, deep memories of 1945 and the Dachau Concentration Camp, will remain with the readers for quite some time.
Riggs gives the reader eye meat and lasting multi leveled impressions fr...more
Riggs gives the reader eye meat and lasting multi leveled impressions fr...more
There's nothing like finding old photographs, magazines, or papers in an attic, or a flea market, or an antique store. You know you are bound to find a gem. In this book, Ransom Riggs collects all gems - found photographs with notations that are sometimes touching, sometimes mysterious, sometimes tragic, but always fascinating. As Riggs points out, it's sad that generations hence will not have this same tactile experience with found photographs and notes. We certainly will leave a vast collectio...more
May 10, 2013
Mary
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Florence MacIntosh
Shelves:
photography,
read-2013
"I have an unusual hobby: I collect pictures of people I don't know."
Author Ransom Riggs compiled a collection of unusual vintage snapshots, their quirky, hilarious or heartbreaking captions the unifying theme. Organized into seven sections: Clowning Around, Love and Marriage, Times of Trouble, Life During Wartime, Janet Lee, Hide This Please, and Unsolved Mysteries.
One of my favorites? The caption reads: "You can Put this in your scrap book + remember how much fun we had teaching me how to dri...more
Author Ransom Riggs compiled a collection of unusual vintage snapshots, their quirky, hilarious or heartbreaking captions the unifying theme. Organized into seven sections: Clowning Around, Love and Marriage, Times of Trouble, Life During Wartime, Janet Lee, Hide This Please, and Unsolved Mysteries.
One of my favorites? The caption reads: "You can Put this in your scrap book + remember how much fun we had teaching me how to dri...more
1 like · like · see review
I loved Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, so I was anxious to read Talking Pictures.
Riggs continues his obsessive collection of photographs of unknown people in this book, but doesn't build a story around them as he did with Miss Peregrine. Instead, he categorizes the photos and lets them do the talking as he shares whatever has been written on them. I was totally sucked into this book and finished it in one sitting but afterward I felt like a voyeur and that I had invaded strangers'...more
Riggs continues his obsessive collection of photographs of unknown people in this book, but doesn't build a story around them as he did with Miss Peregrine. Instead, he categorizes the photos and lets them do the talking as he shares whatever has been written on them. I was totally sucked into this book and finished it in one sitting but afterward I felt like a voyeur and that I had invaded strangers'...more
My wife purchased this for me as a Christmas gift after I enjoyed the pictures sprinkled through the author's novel, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." This isn't a novel, so don't expect that. It's a picture book and can be read in one sitting, but it's also one you may feel compelled to read again and again.
I've always been fascinated with old photographs - the fact that a moment of time was captured and then, over the years, time passed the subjects by. Some are dead. Some are far...more
I've always been fascinated with old photographs - the fact that a moment of time was captured and then, over the years, time passed the subjects by. Some are dead. Some are far...more
They were photos of strangers, of weddings and funerals, family vacations, backyard forts, and first days of school, all torn from once-treasured albums and dumped into plastic bins for strangers to paw through: communal graves of a sort, the anonymous dead shuffled into ersatz families of the unwanted.
Miss Peregrine author Ransom Riggs shares a scrapbook of vintage photography with captions that make the reader laugh, smile, cry, and reminisce about “the good old days.”
Random personal factoid:...more
Miss Peregrine author Ransom Riggs shares a scrapbook of vintage photography with captions that make the reader laugh, smile, cry, and reminisce about “the good old days.”
Random personal factoid:...more
I find it difficult to rate a book that was not really for reading but more for "viewing". As an illustrated “novel” I would rate it 5 stars, but it is not really a book you “read” as much as “view” it. The illustrated "novel" is a collection of vintage photographs categorised in book form. There is something mysterious, mesmerising and seriously disturbing about viewing photos of people you don’t know. But I really enjoyed it finding myself going back to some of the photos every other day and t...more
When I pick up a book that is made primarily of pictures, I’m not really sure what to think. I mean, it’s pictures — how much of an impact can it make? A LOT.
You know in movies, when you see people going to flea markets and they buy photographs? Apparently, that’s a thing. I had no idea! I don’t know how people could make anything off of old photos, but that’s just what Ransom Riggs does. In this book, he’s assembled groups of photos, old photographs, just like the title says, rescued from the p...more
You know in movies, when you see people going to flea markets and they buy photographs? Apparently, that’s a thing. I had no idea! I don’t know how people could make anything off of old photos, but that’s just what Ransom Riggs does. In this book, he’s assembled groups of photos, old photographs, just like the title says, rescued from the p...more
I actually bought this book, thinking it was a novel since I'd read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. However, this book is nothing like that at all, but I wasn't disappointed.
Ransom Riggs takes the readers on a picture journey through the lives of those they will never know. I found myself laughing, falling silent, and feeling heart pangs for strangers. Lovely, lovely book full of honest, human moments captured and forgotten.
Ransom Riggs takes the readers on a picture journey through the lives of those they will never know. I found myself laughing, falling silent, and feeling heart pangs for strangers. Lovely, lovely book full of honest, human moments captured and forgotten.
1 like · like · see review
Dec 23, 2012
Jessica
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of Found Magazine, PostSecret, Awkward Family Photos etc.
Recommended to Jessica by:
Dad
Shelves:
non-fiction
Riggs gets his message across - here's another medium we're losing that used to be crucial to marking the passages of our lives. Because Riggs specializes in photos already "captioned" by whoever they belonged to (he only collects photos with writing on them) the emotional draw from the images is magnified tremendously. Grouped loosely by "subject" some are funny or clever but the bulk of the book is dark - images of war, illness, destruction. Inspirational in unexpected ways. I suspect most rea...more
If you were intrigued by the mysterious photos in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, you've got to check out this collection of found photos by the author. They're not as out-and-out bizarre, but they include the reason he collected them in the first place: the writing on the back. He chooses to keep old photos only if they have interesting captions. The food for thought in these is deep!
Old snapshots have always been interesting to me. When I visit my grandmother I look through her old photos. A few years ago, I found some at an antique shop and for some reason the snapshots of strangers hold this bizarre power that my family ones do not. I have a meager collection, but Ransom Riggs and his buddies have some true classics complied in this little volume. The pictures kind of create a story of their own, and one collection about a girl named Janet Lee is particularly enthralling....more
Talking Pictures By Ransom Riggs is basically a collection of old unwanted, found photos mostly from 1900-1960 of people with captions that the author found at antique stores, flea markets, and the like. All the old photos in the book have captions that are often really entertaining, none of the images are totally anonymous(unlike so many old photos), that's why the book has the title ''Talking Pictures'' , because all the photos have some information on them.
I love old photos more than anything...more
I love old photos more than anything...more
First sentence: "I have an unusual hobby: I collect pictures of people I don't know."
In this book, Ransom Riggs showcases a collection of pictures he has found in flea markets and antique shops. He lets the pictures and their accompanying writing speak for themselves in this unique book. There are pictures of love and death, humor and war. There are candid shots, studio portraits, and mug shots strewn at random throughout the book. It tells the unique tale of humans and photography and how thoug...more
In this book, Ransom Riggs showcases a collection of pictures he has found in flea markets and antique shops. He lets the pictures and their accompanying writing speak for themselves in this unique book. There are pictures of love and death, humor and war. There are candid shots, studio portraits, and mug shots strewn at random throughout the book. It tells the unique tale of humans and photography and how thoug...more
Oct 13, 2012
Dayla
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
addicting,
nonfiction,
art,
beautiful,
death,
devoured-in-one-day,
emotional-rape,
fucking-amazing,
humour,
insanely-good,
romance,
society,
surprising,
photography,
history
Article first published as Book Review: Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past by Ransom Riggs on Blogcritics.
Review also appeared on my blog: Book Addict 24-7
I received a copy for review
Ransom Riggs’s Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past is an unforgettable trip into the past. The stories found on the back of the pictures presented offer their own little surprises, adding depth to a seemingly simple text.
Riggs’s shows the reader that sometimes only a...more
Review also appeared on my blog: Book Addict 24-7
I received a copy for review
Ransom Riggs’s Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past is an unforgettable trip into the past. The stories found on the back of the pictures presented offer their own little surprises, adding depth to a seemingly simple text.
Riggs’s shows the reader that sometimes only a...more
3 likes · like · see review
This was just a collection of found photographs that had things written on them or on the back. It was well organized. The author gave a short introduction explaining his obsession. I have a found photograph that I am obsessed with, although there is nothing written on it, so it is a complete mystery. It is nice that these pictures have found a home. I got this through ILL and have it through August, so if you are in the system and would like to borrow it, let me know and I will send it your way...more
Long anticipated I finally bought a copy of this book for my coffee table. A story through pictures that tugs your heart with almost every page. The setting is a personal look into private moments families shared through vintage photos and postcards. It fills a facination for the mysterious and slightly macabre but foremost an appreciation for our ancestors whom lived in a time far more difficult than ours and the humor that carried them through it.
This was quite an interesting book that taps into an interest of mine, that is, looking at other people's pictures. Of course, photos with captions are even better to tell the story behind the pictures. I'm amazed to find so many pictures in this book that others have thrown away, especially the sad ones. Overall, this was a pleasant read that was quick and easy to finish.
Much like Ransom Riggs, I've always looked through vintage photographs at flea markets and estate sales. There's an alluring mystery about someone's life captured in a moment, whether candid or posed. But Riggs has included the messages written on the backs/fronts of these photos... Which results in some funny and heartbreaking results. Perfect coffee table book.
Start to read to the intro, which will refer you to other pages, and the urge to flip ahead cannot be ignored. Then, go back to the intro, because it needs to be read, and then finish the book in one go.
Expect to cry, and laugh, and cry some more. The War photos always send me reeling.
This is the best book I've read since Chopsticks.
Expect to cry, and laugh, and cry some more. The War photos always send me reeling.
This is the best book I've read since Chopsticks.
This book is living proof that the human condition doesn't change. Riggs has taken random pictures of persons unknown to him and created a story in pictures. He lets the pictures, and the writing on the back or front, speak for themselves. Simple, yet powerful. It only takes about an hour to read cover-to-cover and is worth every minute.
Remembering back to all of the times that I, like the author, was dragged through antique stores as a kid, I was always saddened by the boxes of photos that no longer had a home. This book takes those photos and gives them a home.
I love this book and can't wait for it to find its home on my future coffee table.
I love this book and can't wait for it to find its home on my future coffee table.
Have you ever gone into antique stores and seen old photos for sale? I love these images of the past and often buy them. Ransom Riggs is a lover of old photos as well and he has compiled a wonderful collection of them in this entertaining book. He lets the photos do the talking -a treasure trove of fascinating images. Full of humor as well as pathos. There is an especially poignant grouping of photos of a young girl who passed away at 10 years old. A really pleasurable read that you can look at...more
If what you liked best about Miss Peregrine's were all the cool old photos, then be sure and check this new collection from Ransom Riggs. He selects some of the coolest ones from his and others' collections and it really draws you in, page after page. Provocative and inspiring.
I hadn't read anything about this book before I started reading it. I presumed it was going to include a story, incorporating pictures like "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children". Once I realized it was a collection of old pictures and captions, I enjoyed it much more.
May 11, 2013
Brandy
added it
Shelves:
2013,
adult,
artsy-craftsy-how-to,
collections-anthologies,
experimental,
library,
realistic
I don't know that I can count this as a real book as it's just an assortment of found photos with their handwritten captions. Some are interesting, some are funny, some are tragic, but they just .... are.
Nice to look at; glad I got it from the library.
Nice to look at; glad I got it from the library.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: Cover of a book | 2 | 31 | Sep 18, 2012 06:02am |
I grew up in Florida, went to Kenyon College in Ohio, then film school at USC in LA, where I still live. I write books and screenplays, blog daily for mentalfloss.com, and make short films.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is my first novel. I'm really excited about it -- it was challenging and rewarding and I hope people like it. If you read that and like the found photographs in it, y...more
More about Ransom Riggs...
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is my first novel. I'm really excited about it -- it was challenging and rewarding and I hope people like it. If you read that and like the found photographs in it, y...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
