Fact or Fiction? Photography merging genres in children’s picturebooks
A Practice-Led Masters by Research Degree Faculty of Creative Industries & Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology Discipline: Visual Arts
25% Exegesis written component: 10,000 words 75% Creative work: Nudge’s Tale picturebook
Student: Bridgette McKelvey
Qualifications: Graduate Diploma in Communications Practice, QUT Graduate Certificate Cambridge CELTA, University of Queensland
Bachelor of Arts, University of Queensland
Principal Supervisor: Dr Helen Klaebe
Associate Supervisor: Dr Deborah Henderson
Year of Submission: 2008
Abstract
This paper explores photography in children’s picturebooks and its ability to extend image-making and reading by creating a hybrid genre that merges real and non-real worlds. In analysing the use of photography in such a hybrid genre, the work of
Lauren Child (2006, 2001a, 2001b, 2000), Polly Borland (2006),
Shaun Tan (2007, 2000, 1998) and Dave McKean (2004a, 2004b,
1995) is deconstructed. These artists utilise photography in contemporary picturebooks that are fictional. In addition, David
Doubilet’s images (1990, 1989, 1984, 1980) are discussed, which fuse underwater photojournalism with art, for factual outputs.
This research uncovers a gap in picturebook literature and creates a new hybrid by merging genres to produce a work that is both factual and fictional. The research methodology in this study includes a brief overview of photography and notions of truth, contemporary picturebook trend theory, use of a student focus group, industry collaborations and workshops, and environmental education pedagogy. This thesis outlines summaries of research outcomes, not the least of which is the
2 capacity for photography to enrich narrative accounts by providing multilayered information, character perspectives and/ or a metafictive experience. These research outcomes are then applied to the process of creating such a hybrid children’s picturebook.
3 Key Words
creative photography marine photography genre hybrid creative non fiction children’s picturebooks conservation marine ecology dolphins creative writing
4 Definitions
Artistic Audit: an overview of related, contemporary practice
Environmental ethic: empathy and action fostering the protection of the natural world
Fiction: an imagined narrative depicted by creative photography (not realistic or documentary)
Hybrid genre: a creative work merging different or opposite genres
Metafiction: fiction drawing attention to its own construction
(Pantaleo, 2004b: 213)
Mixed Media: a combination of creative practices as one output
Pedagogy: teaching methodology
Photography: traditional and digital image-making techniques
Photographic pixilation: out-of-focus blurring of digital pixels
Photorealism: art that looks realistic, like a photograph
Picturebook: the compound noun reflects “the union of text and art that results in something beyond what each form separately contributes”
(Wolfenbarger and Sipe, 2007: 273)
5 Statement of Original Authorship
The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher educational institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
Signed:
Bridgette A McKelvey
Dated:
6 Acknowledgements
I wish to thank and acknowledge everyone who supported and assisted this project. In particular I express gratitude to:
My roots - Jemma, Sam, and my family – for their love and encouragement; My supervisory team, Dr Helen Klaebe and Dr Deborah Henderson for their tireless support, mentorship, direction, nurturing and belief; QUT Creative Industries Faculty for the MA scholarship and ongoing support, particularly Professor Greg Hearn and Dr Luke Jaaniste; Professor Raymond Evans for generously consulting on this project regarding Queensland’s Indigenous history and representation; Sea World Australia and Wendy Morgan for sharing Nudge; Brisbane City Council, Rachel Cruttenden, Rick Ayala and the North Side Team for their dedication to local environment and animals; West End State School- Taakin Pastourel and the fabulous focus group, Nellie and her family; State Library Queensland and the John Oxley Library for the photographic workshops; Shaun Tan for sharing image-making techniques and supporting a vision; My mates, including Annie Long for supporting the creative vision, Dr Erin Evans for walks and conceptual synthesising, Rachel Chalmers for coffees and creative concocting, and Phoebe Hart for Jupiter conspiring; Dr Steve Taylor for talking marine mammals; Queensland Writers Centre for fostering a community of author/ artists.
7 Table of Contents
Introduction
Creative roots 10
Practice-led research: exegesis and creative practice 11
The research question 13
Literature Review
Photography, truth and changing stereotypes 14
Contemporary picturebook trends 18
An artistic audit: case studies 21
1. Lauren Child and Polly Borland 23
2. Shaun Tan 27
3. Dave McKean 32
4. David Doubilet 36
Summary of outcomes A 40
Additional Research Methodology
West End State School focus group and State Library
Queensland 42
Industry collaboration and workshops 47
Environmental picturebooks in the classroom 50
Summary of outcomes B 53
8 Creative Practice
Creative practice momentum 55
1. The story surfaces 55
2. Photographic origins 57
Applying the research outcomes 59
1. Appeal and authenticity 60
2. Mixing genres 62
3. Abstraction for effect 66
4. Plot strategies 69
5. Layout and text 71
6. Emotion and education 72
Conclusion 76
Appendix 78
Bibliography 80
9 Introduction
Creative roots
Pacific roots feed my creative expression. Like many Australians I originate from elsewhere. Having no lineage of local stories passed to me, I create my own from what I see. Visual imagery, particularly coastal and water photography is my medium for storytelling. I photographed this palm on a family pilgrimage to Western Samoa. It reflects my creative roots: photography that bridges real and imaginary worlds.
10 Practice-led research: exegesis and creative practice
This exegesis explores photography as creative practice in children’s picturebooks and is weighted 25%, while the creative work is weighted
75%. As a photographer who conveys meaning through visual imagery I have included photographic images in this paper to enhance text and visually document my processes.
This exegesis details the research methodology for the analysis and practise of photography in children’s picturebooks. Its theoretical and practical links draw on the following: o contemporary picturebook trends as platforms for an emerging hybrid
genre of photography that merges reality and fiction in children’s
picturebooks; o an artistic audit of current picturebook practitioners who utilise
photography to blend reality and fiction; and a professional
photographer who mixes documentary and artistic photographic genres; o West End State School student focus groups outcomes; o industry collaborations and workshops outcomes; o a pedagogical rationale for the value of environmental picturebooks in
classroom learning; o how creative practice directs creative output.
The research findings then summarise and describe the application of these outcomes in evolving the creative practice.
11 The creative practice for this project takes the form of a children’s picturebook titled Nudge’s Tale and features photography that merges art and documentary genres. Nudge’s Tale combines my skills as a photographer, with experience in teaching and writing. This venture is innovative first, for its hybrid fusion of reality and creativity in an exclusively photographic children’s picturebook and second, for its digital recreations of an authentic local story which features Nudge, an orphaned dolphin pup who was rescued off the coast of Brisbane.
This project sits within the model of practice-led research for research outputs are expressed “through the medium of creativity” (Haseman, 2006:
148) as creative practice, whilst the exegesis, provides the “commentary”
(Haseman, 156) on research findings and process. I propose a metaphor for practice-led research: The relationship between my creative work and exegesis could be likened to a shark in the ocean. The shark represents a creative practice and the ocean its exegesis. The shark is the life and the water is its context. Both entities are interdependent, just as creative practice relies on industry context for inspiration and reflection, and industry depends on creative practice for new life.
+ = =
creative practice exegesis practice-led research
12 The research question
This project seeks to explore the research question:
How does photography merge real and imaginary worlds in
children’s picturebooks?
I address this question through research processes including a literature review outlining contemporary picturebook scope and an artistic audit of picturebook artists and an underwater photographer who mix reality and non-reality for their creative outputs, as well as focus group sessions, industry collaborations and workshops, and educational applications.
These research processes revealed insights involving the following key themes in photographic picturebook practice:
1. Appeal and authenticity;
2. Mixing genres;
3. Abstraction for effect;
4. Plot strategies;
5. Layout and text;
6. Emotion and education.
Using these insights I realised the creative practice − a picturebook that demonstrates photography’s capacity to bridge different genres and worlds in children’s picturebooks.
13 Literature Review
Photography, truth and changing stereotypes
Visual media in children’s literature is typically relegated to two distinct genres of picturebook: photography for fact and illustration or painting for fiction. Dominated by factual, learn-to-read books, and posed teddy bears in situ, photography in children’s literature is typically factual whereas fiction picturebooks are usually illustrated or painted (Bader, 2006: 250).
“Truth-telling”, according to Gefter, (2006: 50) is the promise of a photograph − as if fact itself resides in the optical precision with which the medium reflects our perception”. This raises the possibility that photography is often stereotyped as a medium of factual representation, rather than creative practice. Aspects of Gefter’s sentiment are evident in Steve Parish’s picturebooks.
14 Parish’s Fact File books reflect popular perceptions on photography’s scope in children’s picturebooks. Similarly, photographs in children’s picturebooks portraying real environments tend to be scientific and narrated in third- person language. For instance McKenna and Andrew’s Back to the Blue
(1999), a story creatively narrating the release of three dolphins back into the wild, uses illustration for its creative account and photographs for its factual narrative. The pictures below demonstrate this visual stereotyping evident in Back to the Blue: The first image uses illustration to depict the dolphin’s creative account and second image employs photography to portray the factual elements of the story.
15 Despite popular assumptions that photography embodies objective truth however, it can be argued that a photograph reflects aspects of the photographer’s intent. For instance, photographers make subjective choices about features such as inclusion, exclusion, emphasis and subject direction in photographs. Photographs are often subjected to repairs, corrections and enhancements. Furthermore, whilst computer technology has facilitated easier photographic manipulation, as Mullen (1998: 17) writes,
“digital imaging has simply forced everyone to acknowledge the inherently manipulative nature of photography and to understand that it never represented “truth” in the first place”.
John Grierson, a pioneer of documentary film, defined such photography as
"the creative treatment of actuality” (Mullen, 1998: 44). A photographer’s agenda influences his or her depiction of reality consciously or unconsciously by including an emotional subtext to engage or persuade.
This is not so different from art which also seeks to evoke emotion. Mullen states “photography can be philosophically allied with art because it manipulates versions of reality in order to reveal truths” (1998: 44).
16 The re-evaluation of notions of “truth” in visual representation and the redefining of photography to allow for its inclusion into the realm of art has fostered photographic innovation. Can photography utilise creative opportunities by merging fiction and non-fiction to create a new genre hybrid of children’s picturebooks?
This research explores the potential for photography in children’s picturebooks by documenting: o Contemporary picturebook trends, as a context for innovation o An artistic audit exploring:
1. Photography in contemporary children’s picturebooks;
2. Contemporary marine photography.
This review reveals current children’s picturebook trends by summarising academic discourse and auditing the work of pioneering author/ artists:
Lauren Child (2006, 2001a, 2001b, 2000) and Polly Borland (2006), Shaun
Tan (2007, 2000, 1998), and Dave McKean (2004a, 2004b, 1995). It then examines contemporary marine photography by analysing the images of
David Doubilet (1990, 1989, 1984, 1980).
17 Contemporary picturebook trends
Digital technology has created opportunities for innovation in picturebooks by encouraging an excitingly expansive and mixed-media climate for visual story portrayal.
“The process of becoming engaged in a story is often due to a realisation of its marvellous artifice and a negotiation of the playful collision of multiple sign systems readers are confronted with” (Wylie, 2006: 176).
Contemporary children’s picturebooks use a “pastiche of illustrative styles”
(Anstey, 2002: 447), unpredictable formatting, multiple plot-lines and contrasting perspectives. Dresang (1999: 14) suggests, “contemporary children’s literature is changing in step with the positive changes in the digital world”. Her “radical change” framework proposes three areas of picturebook change: forms and formats; perspectives; and boundaries
(Dresang, 1999: 19-26).
18 Contemporary picturebooks also play with different perspectives of story telling. There is a trend for metafictive picturebooks to “self-consciously and systematically draw attention to their status” in the same way as constructed fiction (Waugh, 1984: 2). Consequently, reader expectations are also changing. Anstey (2002: 456) summarises shifting reader expectations by quoting a student she surveyed: “Now I don’t like some of the books I thought were really good. They’re just too simple and obvious”.
Shifting formats and perspectives have extended the parameters for how story worlds are portrayed in picturebooks. This raises the issue of how we interpret and represent fiction and reality (Pantaleo, 2004b: 213). Bakhtin
(1981) conceptualises the relationship between real and creative worlds as a process of continual renewal:
“The Work and the world represented in it enter the real world and enrich it, and the real world enters the work and its world as part of the process of creation, as well as part of its subsequent life, in a continuing renewing of the work through the creative perception of listeners and readers” (p. 254).
19 Can real and non-real worlds combine to create a hybrid which allows for effective story portrayal? Hutcheon (2002) draws upon postmodernism’s challenge to the early twentieth century modernist worldview which created a hierarchy of separate genres, by advocating fluid, interspersed genres.
For Hutcheon, this postmodern opportunity has given rise to the possibility of a hybrid genre as a “paradoxical mix of seeming opposites”, which is a phenomenon arising from postmodernist opportunities (p. 8). It can be argued that one of the characteristics of contemporary children’s picturebooks is this postmodern-inspired innovation. Does such innovation support photography as an emerging tool for mixing genres of fiction and non-fiction in children’s picturebooks? This exegesis explores photography’s potential for genre hybridising in children’s picturebooks through the following artistic audit.
20 Artistic Audit
Johnston’s (2003: 311) observation that whilst research “informs practice, what is equally important to acknowledge is that practice in turn informs research” presents the challenge of assessing creative practices for research outcomes. A search of catalogues, databases and literature yielded limited discourse on hybrid or creative photography in children’s picturebooks.
Similarly, those librarians and major book sellers interviewed knew of no creative children’s picturebooks solely featuring photography and suggested that photography in children’s books was limited to conventional scientific or learn-to-read books.
Realising I was traversing a gap in the field, I audited contemporary children’s picturebooks for any form of hybrid photography. I sought artists who were using creative photography in image-making, even though photography was not their sole practice or output. My assumption was that this process would reveal photographic hybridising in its infancy.
21 The following visual artists use photography within mixed media to create innovative and visually arresting picturebooks. In this section I analyse the use of traditional and digital photography and the effect of their image- making techniques.
1. Lauren Child (2006, 2001a, 2001b, 2000) and Polly Borland (2006) − use photographic pixilation effects and photographic scanning for 2D collage, as well as artistic photography to document 3D miniature sets;
2. Shaun Tan (2007, 2000, 1998) − employs photorealism and Adobe
Photoshop digital techniques, to enhance illustration and painting;
3. Dave McKean (2004a, 2004b, 1995) − uses digital photo blending, layering and computer 3D effects, mixed with painting and illustration;
I then explore the creative image-making techniques of a visual artist whose solely photographic works blur the line between realism and art.
4. David Doubilet (1990, 1989, 1984, 1980) – blends underwater photorealism and fine art genres.
Analysing Doubilet’s work is relevant to my creative practice, as our photography shares an oceanic focus and hybrid style, albeit for different publishing outputs − his work features in magazines, rather than children’s picturebooks.
22 1. Lauren Child and Polly Borland
Lauren Child, well known for the popular Charlie and Lola (2000), and
Clarice Bean (2001) picturebook series, features photography collaged with illustration, paint, and fabrics in her works. She creates collage elements separately, before assembling images with scissored edges, effecting playful scrapbook-like visuals. Wylie observes that Child “clearly delights in excess.
The Clarice Bean books are sort of in-your-face graphic scrapbooks” (2006:
194). Using landscape and architectural photography for background, Child solidifies story locations by using these natural and structural images.
Child’s Stylistic techniques favour pixilated photographs over sharp images.
As Henry (2007) observes,
“Child takes most of the photos she uses in her work as she doesn’t want them to look too professional; she prefers a grainy texture so her book will have the appearance of someone’s scrapbook” (p. 45).
23 A typical page layout is evident in What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean?
(2001b). Child anchors the scene by placing a photograph of a tree over a watercolour wash. She assembles the tree from pixilated photo cuttings of bark, rendering trunk and branches, and affixes individual drawings of people in various postures lounging in the tree. Despite the cut-out edges and separateness of each component, the arrangement and believability of
Child’s skillfully candid characters, make for an aesthetically seamless union between the different mediums − a consciously cohesive scene.
Child’s text is multimodal: she digitally layers and positions different fonts over photography and images to express multiple speakers and the story’s varying pace. For instance, text layered on separate carrots gives a separate emphasis to each word in I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato
(2000). My Uncle is a Hunkle says Clarice Bean (2001a) also reflects Child’s
24 fusion of landscape photography with other mediums, meshing reality and fiction. She also uses photography for portraits that are suspended on textured walls within her illustrations. Child plays with reality and fiction by importing real photographs into illusionary worlds. She creates an awareness of fiction construction − metafiction.
In The Princess and the Pea (2006) Child collaborates with Polly Borland, a professional photographer, to extend the photographic scope from 2D to 3D visuals. Borland uses the camera to create 3D perspective and atmosphere, bringing to life Child’s miniature visual sets: drawn characters in cornflakes box constructions adorned with furnishings and textures, as well as exterior bonsai, tiny stone paths and leaf litter.
25 Borland uses traditional photographic techniques to enhance Child’s creations in The Princess and the Pea. Lighting and long exposures are used to create mood. Blue filters and shadows accentuate ethereal night scenes as the princess wanders under the moonlight. Side-lighting and long exposures (rather than flash photography) create cosiness by casting warmth and light, as shown in the images below. Borland varies the depth of field to create a 3D perspective. For instance, by using a short focal length, Borland sharply focuses on objects proximate to the story’s characters, whilst simultaneously blurring objects at a further distance. This effect is particularly exemplified in the first scene shown below where the
King and Queen sit before a window − the table is in sharp focus, whereas the building seen through the window is out of focus.
These photographic techniques deliver a convincingly fused world of realism and imagination. This hybrid fusion considerably enlivens visuals that are engaging for readers.
26 2. Shaun Tan
Like Child and Borland, who both use mixed media visuals for a unique result, Shaun Tan employs mixed media techniques in his picturebooks.
However Tan’s visuals contrive for photorealism; he uses creative techniques to replicate photographs. In The Arrival (2007a) Tan applies photographic processes to create the effect of a photo album that portrays a compelling world, albeit abstracted. Tan observes of this technique, “I stop when I have almost punctured the paper and am about to enter another world” (2007b).
27 Tan described his use of photography in crafting The Arrival (2007a) by sharing image-making techniques at a Brisbane workshop (2007b). Tan revealed his use of video stills for storyboard sequencing to assist perspective, lighting and continuity. For instance, to enable him to convincingly draw a character picking up a hat, Tan videoed the act of picking up a hat eight times to achieve his desired perspective. Tan also applies video stills as background layers in more complex images.
In a kitchen scene, for example, the people, table and jacket are sourced from a video still layer that Tan embellishes with shading and other illustrated additions, such as the ‘tadpole-esque’ creature, chair and background wall. Whilst Tan’s images are photorealistic in conveying the realism of photographs, they retain a sketched texture with cross-hatched pencil lines and texture. Tan darkly hand-shades oppressive scenes to convey despair, and claims he now has the “wrist of a 90 year old” from this shading technique (Tan, 2007b).
28 Tan uses Adobe Photoshop, yet mindful of overuse which he likens to
“oversteering a car” (Tan, 2007b), he keeps digital enhancements subtle, maintaining the mood of his images. Tan plays with sepia hues to create the look of aged photos, as “colour is an emotional device” (Tan, 2007b).
Tan scans authentically aged photographs, and then digitally extracts picture borders and feathers edges to replicate tattered photographs.
The Arrival (2007a) is uniquely devoid of text; pictures alone tell the story.
Like a photo album, narration is embedded in each image and by their sequencing. As one review observes:
“‘Tan adeptly controls the book’s pacing and rhythm by alternating a grid-like layout of small panels, which moves the action forward, with stirring single and double page spreads, that invite awestruck pauses” (Publisher’s Weekly, 2007: 166).
Tan’s photo-like pictures, drawn and arranged on realistically aged and crumpled album-like pages, produce a poignant personal archive of stories.
29 Playing with fiction construction also in The Rabbits (1998) and The Lost
Thing (2000), Tan parodies modern art works by ‘borrowing’ paintings from artists, E. Phillips Fox and Jeffrey Smart (Strahan, 2000: 1). On the cover of
The Rabbits (1998), Tan substitutes Captain Cook’s crew from the original painting with rabbits possessing alien-like qualities. On The Lost Thing’s cover (2000), Tan swaps the suited-man from the original painting for the red, lost thing. Tan again uses photography in the cover insert where rows of bottle tops are photographed and layered with individual designs. These techniques create a picturebook world where fiction and reality are interchangeable.
Tan reflects on his picturebook process in the following way:
“Creativity is about playing with found objects, reconstructing things that already exist, and transforming ideas or stories I already know. It’s not about the colonisation of new territory, it’s about exploring inwards, examining your existing presumptions, squinting at the archive of experience from new angles and hoping for some sort of revelation” (Tan, 2003: 2).
30
Moreover as Tan is “always interested in the tension between it feeling real and always being a picture” (Tan 2007b), photography is integral to this process.
31 3. Dave McKean
Illustrator, Dave McKean also plays on the relationship between reality and fiction in his picturebooks. His images explore “the relationship between what is real and not real” (Crawford, 2006: 40). In The Wolves in the Walls
(2004a) McKean jumbles reality and fiction by juxtaposing photography, paintings, illustrations and 3D art. “There are two visual worlds… the darkly layered atmospheric house represented through collage (paintings, photographs and computer generated images) and the lighter world of the wolves rendered in simpler line drawings” (Crawford, 2006: 40).
Significantly, the cover of The Wolves in the Walls showcases McKean’s reality-mixing approach. The cover image is a painted and digitised image of Lucy, the central character, sketching a wolf on a wall. Instead of drawn eyes in her sketch, a photographed set of wolf-eyes “stare back at the
32 reader through eye-holes in the wall, suggesting that a very real flesh-and- blood wolf lurks within” (Crawford, 2006: 40). This makes us wonder whether the wolves are imagined, or real.
McKean’s creative photography features on every page, including interior props such as a photographed Sony PlayStation console, carpets, jam jars, a tuba and pig puppet, as well as exterior photographs of house, landscape and fire. He skillfully layers these photographs with illustrations and random painted layers. McKean uses side-lit photography to create foreboding “odd angles and spooky shadows” (Fisher, 2006: 33). McKean also employs digital technology by drawing on and erasing parts of photos, as well as creating 3D people in Lucy’s world. Bodies with painted faces are digitised and manipulated achieving 3D realism. The result is a world that could be found in any reader’s home, but with startling visual additions, such as the
33 wolves − allowing the reader to entertain the idea of fantastic scenarios bridging a tenuous line between what is real and what could be possible.
McKean’s use of innovative photography is also evident in The Day I
Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (2004b) and Mr Punch (1995). In The
Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (2004b) McKean digitally layers a photograph of a goldfish in a bowl with ink-drawn people, textured paint and paper mache. Likewise he layers a sketched father holding a photographed newspaper, in a sketched hutch layered over a photographed lawn. A rabbit painted with white blotches has a real, photographed eye.
Similarly in Mr Punch (1995), night sequences feature photographs portraying the house exterior and side-lit vegetation.
34 The text scale and positioning dramatise the story in all three picturebooks.
Text is digitally layered along the axis of action and scaled in size, according to the narrative’s intensity.
The effect of McKean’s fusion of photography with illustration, paint, paper- mache, blended characters and run-away text, is a ‘fantastical’ world revolting from reality into fantasy.
35 4. David Doubilet
Unlike the featured picturebook practitioners, photographer David Doubilet’s visual art (1990, 1989, 1984, 1980) is published in magazines. Although
Doubilet’s practice is not published in children’s picturebooks, an artistic audit of his works is relevant as his visual art parallels my creative practice: photography is his primary visual medium, it features the marine word, and successfully fuses two elements crucial to my work ─ photorealism and art.
Doubilet is a resident photographer for National Geographic specialising in unique underwater photography. He artistically portrays the underwater realm creating images that he refers to as “almost fine-art underwater pictures” (2006: 9). His focus is the play of light in water, which adds patterns and wonder to his images, recreating the emotional experience of being underwater. The image above, titled Undersea Desert (1980), reflects
Doubilet’s visual passion. Doubilet says:
“If you go under the sea and you really look, you see an extraordinary thing, which is the underside of the surface. It really is a looking-glass and it is hypnotic. Light goes through it, sparkling, shafting and moving. It is emotional ─ I love this view of the water" (2006: 9).
36 Doubilet’s passion translates into his image-making. His photography extends beyond a technical portrayal of marine subjects; they show the world from the subject’s viewpoint and tell a narrative, taking the viewer out of their reality and into the undersea world of the subject. Doubilet does not use any post-production techniques such as Photoshop manipulation.
He prefers to convey what was, and not to mislead viewers (2006: 15).
Doubilet uses wide-angle lenses to capture extensive underwater vistas that frame his subjects and capture the essence of their locale.
Waves, Shadow, Light and Mullet (1984) photographed in Japan (as above), shows the effect of his wide-angle perspective in capturing mood of space.
Doubilet highlights the responsibility of representing remote worlds to viewers of his images, and emphasises emotion’s role in photographically expressing such places: “It's got to be filtered through your eyes, your mood, your feelings” (2006: 11). A technique which also distinguishes his
37 imagery is the capturing of split-world viewpoints. In Stingray and Sailboat in the Early Afternoon (1990), photographed in the Cayman Islands,
Doubilet uses an 18mm lens to achieve an underwater and above water split image. The image portrays a ray gliding underwater and a sailboat drifting above the waterline, and the technique contrasts and yet joins parallel worlds.
National Geographic’s director of photography, Bob Gilka, extols Doubilet’s subject research and knowledge as intrinsic to the calibre of his photography (Mullen, 1998: 88-9). Doubilet’s deep understanding of subject seems to give him the ability to delve beyond science to portray the personal worlds of his subjects. His close-up portraiture uses mid-focal lengths, depicting his subjects as personas engaging with him, rather than a species under observation. It appears Doubilet earns his subjects’ trust, as
38 his portraiture reflects candour and expression. Harbour Seal with Kelp
(1989), photographed in California, shows a seal relaxed and almost posturing for the camera. This allows the viewer to feel connected with the seal.
Aesthetic marine photography serves an agenda other than art alone.
Whilst journalistic photographs, such as images of an oil spill, seek to promote environmentalism via confrontation, artistic photography can foster an environmental conscience via connection and wonder at the natural world. Doubilet says “all those pretty fish pictures have been the most effective journalistic pictures because they have inspired an environmental ethic" (2006: 15). The effect of Doubilet’s photography that transcends science into art is a collection of mesmerising and engaging images which invite deeper viewing. His images are an aesthetically and emotionally moving experience, prompting the viewer to care about the subject.
39 Summary of outcomes A
In response to the research question:
How does photography merge real and imaginary worlds in
children’s picturebooks?
I propose that creative photographic techniques (traditional and digital) applied in mixed media practice merge factual and fictional worlds. Award- winning author/ artists, Lauren Child and Polly Borland, Shaun Tan, and
Dave McKean extend the parameters of children’s picturebooks by using these techniques, which enliven and challenge image-making in picturebooks. David Doubilet also uses creative photography to mix genres of fact and art, which extends the scope of photography.
The literature review process revealed practical outcomes of using photography to merge real and imaginary worlds. These outcomes were relevant in the planning and contributed to the conceptualising and development of my creative practice:
o Photography’s apparent realism can give authenticity to a fictional story
and blur the line between reality and fantasy; o Creative photography and/or digital manipulation can add aesthetic
interest, colour and emotion to a story; o A photograph within a creative layout can provide familiarity within a
creative background, or a departure point into fantasy;
40 o Mixing real and creative images can enrich narrative accounts by
providing multilayered information, character perspectives and/or a
metafictive experience; o Dynamic visuals can engage readers. For instance: images within
images; mixed media and styles; and abstraction of scenes can elicit a
feeling and/or response; o Digital techniques can assist in accurately portraying a recreated scene
or story. For instance, by using Adobe Photoshop enhancements,
correction, layering and/or editing; o A comprehensive research audit is necessary to photographically portray
a subject with authenticity, substance and emotion; o Effective visuals can connect an audience with a subject, by evoking
emotional response; o This emotional response can prompt an audience ethic, such as an
environmental conscience.
41 Additional Research Methodology
West End State School Focus Group
&
State Library Queensland
The projected reader ages for my creative practice are four to eight year olds. For this reason, I chose to work with a West End State School Grade 2
− 3 composite class for my focus group, as a core component of my additional research methodology. Student ages ranged from six to eight years old. The purpose of engaging a primary school focus group was to canvas involvement, ideas and responses to my project as it evolved. The students became active participants in the process, while being introduced to local stories and aspects of ecological environments.
I selected the State Library Queensland (SLQ) in the first phase of the research as a local research venue where we could access a visual record of
Brisbane’s history and possibly uncover a story that would evolve into the dominant narrative.
42 Focus group sessions included: o an introductory meeting and storyboarding class o an excursion to the John Oxley Library (JOL) at SLQ o photographic shoots and reflection
Introduction and storyboarding 31/10/2007
Students were initially briefed on the project. Together we explored children’s book genres and appeal, themes and setting, and photographic direction, which was based on student ideas and response. Students remained focused throughout the session and enthusiastically contributed questions and ideas. They provided feedback for picturebook genres which they found appealing such as real-life tales, funny, scary or animal stories, and historical narratives.
Student ideas were also visually presented using storyboarding sequences to plan photo shoots on the Brisbane River. Students exceeded my expectations by contributing intelligent and inventive responses. For instance, storyboard sequencing ideas included: o a shark curiously nibbling children’s toes in the river; o children somersaulting and doing handstands underwater; o a shark losing its tooth.
State Library Queensland 13/11/2007
In the lead up to the second focus group session, meetings were held with
JOL staff at SLQ to plan the session’s approach and content. This research
43 session focused on Brisbane River depictions in historic photographs held in the John Oxley Collection at SLQ. I divided the Brisbane River photographs into five topics for student perusal: o swimming; o floods; o boats; o bridges; o panoramas.
Focus questions were then prepared to prompt student response and analysis when viewing the images. The session was jointly facilitated by myself, Jo Ritale (Collections Manager JOL) and Brian Randall (Tour
Manager JOL). Students enjoyed handling the photographs and actively reflecting on image content. Photographs of the floods were particularly engaging for the students, as they could see South Brisbane, their local neighbourhood, underwater, and understood the level of water in relation to homes. The images below show this self-directed involvement process.
44 Similarly students also responded to the panoramas of the city because it was a familiar place, particularly the area where the Story Bridge is now located.
South Bank Photo Shoot 13/11/2007
We visited South Bank for the third session, so students could compare today’s cityscape with the photographs that they had studied at JOL. For instance, students independently distinguished the difference in Victoria
Bridge’s modern construction compared to its predecessors, and noted the impermanence of bridges (after viewing photographs of Victoria Bridge being swept away in the 1893 floods). A parent remarked, “Now I am seeing ghosts of the past everywhere”. Students also directly engaged with history by posing on old tram tracks which once transported passengers over the previous Victoria Bridge. This engagement and application of new knowledge reflects the benefits of self-directed and experiential learning, affirming that evoking an emotional response in children can create an enhanced awareness and ethic of participation.
45
14/11/2007 & 13/12/2007 Underwater photo shoots
Students executed underwater poses with considerable enthusiasm. This generated a further opportunity to engage students, and again supported my pedagogy that eliciting an emotional response in children promotes increased involvement and the potential for an ethic of responsibility. The session also provided opportunities for fine-tuning underwater photographic techniques and experimenting with what ideas and creative imagery emerged.
46 Industry collaborations and workshops
In addition to West End State School and the State Library Queensland, I consulted with various industry stakeholders. These included Brisbane City
Council (BCC), Sea World, and the Brisbane Maritime and Science Museums.
I also sought out academic experts, such as Professor Raymond Evans, author of A History of Queensland (2007), and Dr Sam Watson, Deputy
Director for the Indigenous Studies Unit, University of Queensland. I met with industry professionals by attending Brisbane Writers’ Festival workshops, including a Shaun Tan master class and seminars conducted by other successful children’s book authors including Morris Gleitzmann and
Sonya Hartnett. Finally, I investigated children’s picturebooks as education pedagogy, environmental education and current curriculum practice.
In my initial research proposal I had articulated that my creative practice intention was to create a picturebook portraying a Brisbane story with photographic visuals that would connect children with their marine environment within an historical context. In order to create the story with authenticity I research aspects of Queensland’s historical ecology. In addition to reading local historical documents such as Tom Petrie
Reminisces (1981) and chapters from A History of Queensland (2007), I consulted with BCC and accessed photographs held in the JOL collection at the SLQ (as documented earlier) and the Maritime Museum. Professor
Evans generously consulted on Queensland’s history, suggesting reference materials and offering guidance on the portrayal of themes, particularly
47 information about Brisbane’s Indigenous history (intrinsic to natural ecology). I also studied children’s picturebooks that promoted environmental themes, such as Jeannie Baker’s Where the Forest Meets the
Sea (1989) and The Hidden Forest (2000), Graeme Base’s Uno’s Garden
(2006), and Home (2006) by Narelle Oliver, to study how artists conveyed environmental messages through creative practice, even if using non- photographic practices.
As the direction of my research became more defined, I consulted with Dr
Steve Taylor, a Moreton Bay marine scientist and Wendy Morgan, Sea
World’s marketing manager. Morgan ultimately introduced me to the pivotal character and story for my creative practice. With Sea World’s permission I was able to take aquatic images, particularly of Nudge, the main character in my creative practice Nudge’s Tale. BCC also collaborated by offering
48 environmental information, photographic opportunities and images relating to Nudge’s rescue, the basis for my narrative.
In addition to information sharing and granting copyright permissions, stakeholders expressed interest in the publication of Nudge’s Tale, including
SLQ who offered to publish it online on their website. Sea World expressed interest in assessing Nudge’s Tale for distribution, and BCC may be interested in use as a resource in environmental centres and libraries. This interest affirmed worth and potential applications for Nudge’s Tale.
The Brisbane Writers’ Festival Workshops that I attended in 2007 effectively clarified elements universal to a successful children’s book irrespective of genre. Shaun Tan’s master class and my subsequent meeting with him were particularly inspiring. Tan’s impressive artistry and openness in eloquently sharing visual techniques to engage readers, as well as insights on the creative process proved critical. Morris Gleitzmann’s workshop emphasised key techniques in successfully capturing young readers’ attention through suspense in plot delivery. I later applied these techniques in visual and narrative structuring.
49 Environmental picturebooks in the classroom
In my previous employment as an educator, I drew on resources that awakened and cajoled young students into learning, including picturebooks.
Picturebooks such as Jeannie Baker’s Where the Forest Meets the Sea
(1989) and Graeme Base’s Uno’s Garden (2006) were both moving and educational for students. It was important for me to produce a picturebook with real classroom applications, in addition to creative appeal. For this reason, I researched education pedagogy, environmental picturebooks and recent curriculum documents. Zynda theorises the empathetic capacity of picturebooks to enhance environmental education outcomes:
“Picturebooks can be powerful tools in environmental education… Stories can give children new and different perspectives and engage their minds in ways that nonfiction lessons cannot… In order to connect the children to the environmental issue, authors and illustrators of environmental picturebooks must focus more on the story and the characters than the lessons of environmental awareness” (2007: 11).
Criteria for effective environmental education in picturebooks include:
• Encouraging an appreciation of nature;
• Realism;
• Solutions;
• Children are encouraged to become actively involved;
• Children have had experience with the subject matter;
• The book ends on a positive note and does not assign blame;
• The book presents a balanced view of the issue by showing both sides;
(Zynda, 2007: 17).
50 I was mindful of these criteria in developing Nudge’s Tale (and document instances of their application on page 71 in this paper).
Environmental education is valued across education systems. At the international level, UNESCO (2002:8) advocates environmental education as a priority for a sustainable global future. Environmental education has been part of Australian schooling for more than thirty years, and was endorsed at the national level as one of the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-
First Century (MCEETYA, 1999). More recently, the values component of pedagogical approaches to teaching about the environment was endorsed by the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment and
Heritage (2005) in its National Statement on Education for a Sustainable
Future. This policy statement emphasised one of the long-term goals of environmental education for sustainability as “developing the capacities of
51 students to develop ‘an ethic of personal responsibility and stewardship towards all aspects of the environment’” (p. 8). At the state level, the
Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) prioritises environmental awareness in the Key Learning Area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). For example, the SOSE Syllabus (QSA, 1998) Years 1-10 groups learning outcomes into core strands including “Place and Space” which lists themes of “human-environment relationships”, “processes and environments”,
“stewardship”, “spatial patterns” and “significance of place” (p. 1).
As Johnston puts it, “literature and arts become integral (as mind-openers, image-makers and spirit-feeders) to the sustainable futures of lifelong learners” (2002: 311). This research confirmed the role of environmental picturebooks’ in Queensland education, key criteria for effectiveness, and the worth of pursuing this theme for my creative practice.
52 Summary of outcomes B
Additional research methodology processes of the focus group sessions, industry involvement, workshop participation and curriculum research assisted my creative practice by: o Clarifying that children are interested in reading stories that are true,
scary, about animals and/or history; o Showing that children connect with local stories and familiar subjects; o Emphasising picturebooks which move children are powerful mediums
for communicating ideas and furthering thinking and discussion; o Affirming the worth of the project through consistent industry interest,
support and opportunities; o Demonstrating publishing possibilities for the creative practice; o Providing me an historical and ecological framework for the book; o Delivering the key story; o Presenting opportunities for photo shoots and image-gathering; o Demonstrating strategies for engaging children’s interest in a story,
particularly through suspense; o Reflecting on picturebook processes and techniques; o Connecting with other visual artists and writers; o Ongoing mentorship and feedback on my creative practice; o Confirming the role of environmental picturebooks in education practice
and Queensland curriculum; o Promoting criteria for an effective environmental picturebook.
53 My research methodology demonstrated that photographic hybrid genres are occurring in contemporary children’s picturebooks and yielded the outcomes stated above. I then applied these outcomes to my creative practice process to produce an exclusively photographic picturebook that bridges real and imaginary worlds, with educational applications.
54 Creative Practice
Creative practice momentum
Creative practice ignited and ultimately shaped my project’s direction.
My creative origins had sparked a picturebook vision that, in turn, ignited the research process. Research contextualised and rationalised this creative vision which ultimately gathered pivotal creative momentum. This momentum took the form of the story that beckoned, and the return to my photographic niche.
1. The story surfaces
I was searching for the story that would entice readers. Narrowing research parameters, I had arrived at a conceptual outline featuring a bull shark in the Brisbane River and its journey back in time. I had much of the storyboard laid out, visually and conceptually but felt like I was waiting for
55 the nexus of the story to manifest, and wasn’t satisfied with creativity solely. I wanted authenticity within my creativity.
The story unexpectedly emerged during a meeting with Wendy Morgan, Sea
World’s marketing manager. Our meeting agenda was to arrange a photo shoot of sharks but talk turned to Nudge, an orphaned dolphin and survivor of a poignant story, recently rescued by Sea World. Morgan recommended I meet him.
Instead of photographing bull sharks I found myself at Nudge’s aquarium pool, entranced. Nudge was so endearing; a tiny dolphin with a big persona and moving story. I couldn’t leave and spent the day observing and photographing him. I left Sea World that day committed to portraying
Nudge’s story. Brisbane River bull sharks still interest me, but Nudge’s story had immediacy. Although the character and backdrop had altered, Nudge’s story still delivers my original research proposal of visually portraying a story with authenticity and an ecological agenda contextualised in history.
56 2. Photographic origins
As described earlier, prior to meeting Nudge my visual concept had evolved in stages. The concept hinged around connecting children with environment by depicting evocative visual scapes. Its backdrop started with Brisbane’s skyline and river, then narrowed to the South Brisbane River stretch and then travelled underwater there, before finishing at Nudgee Beach. It is not surprising that I travelled in a full circle from photographing cityscape to inching, like the tide, back to my creative niche of photographing water, before the final tidal surge that swept me back to coastal photography.
57
My focus within coastal photography is water patterns. Like David Doubilet,
I have always been fascinated with portraying the play of light on and through water. I enjoy capturing its ever-changing patterns, unique for a moment in time. Images in Nudge’s Tale portray changing water patterns and mood of as a backdrop for Nudge. For instance, the patterning in the water gives a pensive feel in the image depicting Nudge surfacing (as shown above). Likewise the image of Nudge and his mother playing (as shown the previous page) is designed to convey aesthetic and mood, as well as behavioural documentation. The intent of this portrayal style is art meeting realism, or genre hybridising.
58 APPLYING THE RESEARCH OUTCOMES
Evolving the creative practice necessitated synthesising artistic vision with research outcomes; stoking the creative spark with rationalised direction, to manifest a picturebook satisfying theory yet resonating with magic.
I applied the following themes in the production of Nudge’s Tale by grouping outcomes derived through the research methodology processes:
1. Appeal and authenticity;
2. Mixing genres;
3. Abstraction for effect;
4. Plot strategies;
5. Layout and text;
6. Emotion and education.
59 1. Appeal and authenticity
West End State School’s focus group clarified for me that children like to read true, scary, animal-centred and/or historical stories. Assessing responses to the JOL photographs demonstrated that students will also truly connect with a visual image if it depicts a local place or familiar theme. As
Johnston observes, “children like the unfamiliar planted in the safety of the familiar” (2002: 324). Nudge’s Tale includes aspects of all the above story genres: it is based on a true, local story about a familiar animal that overcomes elements of fear, and is contextualised in history.
My analysis of Doubilet’s images demonstrated that thorough subject research and knowledge facilitates high calibre image-making. Rigorous research enables knowing what is unique and important to reflect and the ability to creatively play in presenting perspectives. To investigate Nudge’s story, I consulted with Sea World, BCC and scientific literature regarding dolphin attributes and behaviours in order to elicit key characteristics of
Nudge, worthy of portrayal to children. I also researched Brisbane’s marine ecology and Indigenous history to give authenticity and an historical context to Nudge’s story. For example, the image of Nudge’s ancestral pod fishing communally with Indigenous Australians reflects this context. Familiarity with marine photography and water also facilitated a skill-base from which I could artistically extend.
60
I met with Rick Alvara, Nudge’s real-life rescuer from BCC, in order to understand and recreate via photography the nature of Nudge’s rescue. I photographed him re-enacting the rescue moment at Nudgee Beach, site of
Nudge’s rescue, and used these photographs in Nudge’s Tale to give credible documentation of this crucial event, and build authenticity to the narrative and images. For instance, the visuals of Nudge’s rescuer, and the hook and net are from photographs I took with Alvara. Additionally, BCC provided actual photographs from Nudge’s rescue that I also used in the visual narrative. For example, images of Nudge’s hooked tail and the rescue boat are manipulations of these photographs. I used Adobe Photoshop filters, colour saturation and cloning to create an artistic version of these documentary images. The effect and rationale behind these techniques is discussed further under the section “Abstraction”.
61 2. Mixing genres
I elected to mix photographic visuals of photorealism and fine art so as to fuse genres while still portraying a true story creatively through the picturebook’s visual art. This method entailed decisions around image- making techniques. For instance, I deliberated on to how to ‘story-rise’ photographs and how to transcend images from documentary photography into a compelling picturebook narrative. I also considered how to join archival and artistic images, and whether to highlight or conceal image- alterations and layering. The outcomes entailed traditional and digital photographic techniques which I applied these techniques to prioritise four goals, namely to:
o replicate Nudge’s story authentically;
o represent Nudge’s persona;
o portray an environmental aesthetic;
o evoke empathy in the reader.
62 Recreating locations and Nudge’s relationships involved traditional camera processes, including wide-angle lens perspectives and portrait-friendly close-up views. It also involved maximising interesting lighting and landscape form and water pattern opportunities, as well as Adobe
Photoshop techniques of layering, blending, cloning, and exposure and colour tweaking. I did not use Photoshop excessively or without justification, as I wanted to maintain the essence of my photographs, mindful of Tan’s cautionary words about Photoshop overkill. This is evident in some final images that include several photographic layers to recreate a scene using techniques similar to Doubilet’s images (1990, 1989, 1984,
1980). For example, in the photograph below I layered images of two dolphins to situate Nudge in the ocean and extend the wide-angle split-view of above and below water, as Doubilet practices in some of his images.
63 I adjusted colour and exposure of photographs to reflect the passage of time and changing mood over an image sequence. For example, images from when Nudge is approaching the net to where he is rescued show the sky and water darkening to reflecting time passing and flavour events with fear. The shark in the image Night was closing in is ominously dark to reflect the colour of night and dread. Conversely, images used in the beginning of the book show light, transparent water − signalling happiness and day-time, and promote the aesthetic of beauty in the marine world.
I experimented with processes, finally deciding to create seamless photographic joins as I wanted pictures to feel natural and cohesive, whilst creative. Digital blending, cloning and semi-opaque merging achieved this effect and allowed for continuous, flowing water lines, rather than discordance between image layers. The effect of mixing photographic
64 genres using traditional and digital processes is the creation of a believable
‘Nudge world’, reflecting aesthetic, perspective and mood.
The following images show the layers and adjustments within the final image of ancestral communal fishing.
65 3. Abstraction for effect
The capacity for picturebook visuals to show how abstracted images can excite and emotionally impact, thus directing the audience’s experience, is evident in McKean’s (2004a, 2004b, 1995) works. As Nudge’s Tale is a fusion of realism and art, I wanted to depict Nudge without compromising his natural appeal, in a story that portrayed what had happened to him, yet through a filter of abstraction and emotion.
I experimented with various techniques to abstract from purely documentary images. The image of Nudge alone (shown below) was taken during a photo shoot where I played with a replica toy in the ocean, for effect. The result is an aerial view of a representational Nudge contrasted by water patterns. Although synthetic, the image poignantly recreates
Nudge’s experience of aloneness for the first time. Interestingly, many readers have responded to the image, not realising it is a toy.
66 Some events that Nudge experienced had the potential to disturb a younger readership. To avoid unnecessary distress I portrayed such scenes as abstract, rather than actual. For instance, I depicted the boat accident that kills Nudge’s mother through an upside-down view of the world as Nudge tumbles underwater, hinting as to what happened to his mother rather than showing or stating the fact (as shown below). Incidentally, I added the skyline of high-rise buildings to indicate development and the presence of people (and boats). The intention was to prompt readers to contemplate the relationship between development and environmental fall-out.
67 Similarly, I digitally transformed images of Nudge’s hooked tail, rescuer and rescue boat to appear painted rather than photographic (shown on the next page). Photoshop filters and colour adjustments facilitated this adjustment.
In summary, digital abstraction of graphic images assists with reader and rescuer sensitivities. Additionally, abstraction of people in photographs portrays the story from Nudge’s perspective by showing how people could look through his eyes. Finally, photographic abstraction produces a picturebook feel by juxtaposing realism with fine-art images.
68 4. Plot Strategies
The series of 2007 Brisbane Writers’ Festival workshops I attended all emphasised suspense and character empathy as crucial elements for absorbing children in story reading. Vogler’s (2003) The Hero’s Journey confirmed these strategies for engaging reader focus. Furthermore, Vogler conceives a universal plot formula and character archetypes. He reduces successful plots to 12 stages, including themes of change, adventure, ordeal, mentorship, awareness and mastery. Vogler explains character archetypes using symbology: the “hero” is a “shapeshifter”, “mentor” is a
“shadow”, “threshold guardians” are “tricksters” and “heralds” are “allies”
(Vogler, 2003: 1).
With these considerations in mind, I sequenced the boat accident −
“change” event early in the story to engage children, by evoking empathy with Nudge in an experience that all children could relate to − losing their mother, even if momentarily at a shopping centre. I developed the narrative by pacing events that culminated in an ominous shark, the “ordeal”, in the scene Night was closing in and the scene where Nudge’s tail is hooked. I then relieved the suspense and trauma by staging Nudge’s rescue sequence. “Awareness” is reflected in the final scenes where Nudge processes his journey by telling his story and explaining the outcome.
Character archetypes are also portrayed in Nudge’s Tale. Nudge, the hero, embodies the qualities of a “shapeshifter” by adapting to change, ordeal and a new environment. His “mentor” is his shadow which keeps him
69 company in a literary and visual sense, even when alone. The fishing net as shown in the first photograph below, is the “trickster” or “threshold guardian” as it changes Nudge’s destiny by delivering him into another realm, whilst the “herald” or “allies” appear in the form of Nudge’s rescuer/s, as indicated in the second photograph below. These techniques strengthen the story by reflecting timeless characters and narrative techniques that children can recognise. On reflection, I should have digitally
“healed” Nudge’s tail in the image below as Nudge had not suffered the injury at this stage in the story. On reflection, I should have digitally
“healed” Nudge’s tail in the image below as Nudge had not suffered the injury at this stage in the story. I would revisit this image prior to book publication, and also stylistically adjust it to reflect more congruency with the following page showing the tail close-up.
70 5. Layout and text
In addition to image construction, layout and text style were considered and trialled. Double page spreads were chosen for maximum visual impact. After playing with the effect of offsetting images with colour panels and borders,
I chose simplicity with imagery alone as the best way to present my work. I did not want to detract from the visuals which were already complex with layers and symbolism. I also chose white text for neutrality and oceanic freshness. Jeannie Baker’s picturebooks, such as Where the Forest Meets the Sea (1989), creatively depict ecological themes through striking visual imagery, and neutral text. Text assists the narrative and does not detract from the aesthetic or emotional experience. Baker’s (1989) image below demonstrates neutral text facilitating visual impact. I hoped for the same outcome in my practice.
As this paper focuses on visual art in picturebook making I do not deconstruct the content of text in Nudge’s Tale’s. However it is interesting to note that the words also assist the merger of real and imagined perspectives. For example “Night was closing in…” suggests an imaginary collective fear of sharks at dusk, whereas “I couldn’t breathe” details the factual reality of Nudge’s situation.
71 6. Emotion and education
The capacity of creative representations to prompt empathetic responses and elucidate meaning is noted by Mullen. As he puts it, “art brings about changes in audience perception by “deliberately slanting reality, to not tell us what ‘is’, but ‘what is important”’ (Mullen, 1998: 42).
As discussed earlier, modern teaching pedagogy supports learning through creative resources, including picturebooks, which often rely on emotive techniques to engage interest and facilitate learning.
Child (2006, 2001a, 2001b, 2000) and Borland (2006), Tan (2007, 2000,
1998), McKean (2004a, 2004b, 1995) and Doubilet (1990, 1989, 1984,
1980) all produce diverse, creative perspectives of reality. Common to their work however, is the use of emotive methods to present educational themes. For example Child and Borland tackle topics such as health, modern family life and environmentalism through humour; Tan approaches issues of immigration and isolation through poignant depictions; McKean inspires qualities of courage and inventiveness through character identification and response; and Doubilet promotes marine education and conservation through emotional connection. These artists use various creative techniques to produce engaging art and narrative, which evoke an empathetic response from the reader and further an underlying educational agenda. That is, to link students to the affective domain of learning through valuing the environment portrayed and in doing so help them to “make sense of their world” (MCEETYA, 1999: Goal 1.3).
72 Nudge’s Tale aims to promote environmental awareness and evoke empathy and action in the reader. As it incorporates the SOSE themes identified earlier, it has scope for developing environmental awareness and prompting an environmental ethic in Australian primary classrooms. The importance of prompting a ‘caring’ (Kohn, 1997: 435) response in students is fundamental to the development of an environmental ethic. The specific agenda for Nudge’s Tale is to connect children with marine animals and their natural environment, whilst also promoting the Indigenous value of balance between people and nature. Through the story of Nudge, I seek to engage readership focus and compassion, using techniques depicting
Nudge’s personality, as well as his emotional journey and story outcomes.
Similarly by portraying an aesthetically beautiful marine world, I hope to inspire an environmental ethic and empathy for Nudge’s well-being and his fragile oceanic environment.
In developing and portraying Nudge’s story I was mindful of incorporating
Zynda’s criteria (2007) for an effective environmental picturebook. For instance, portraying Nudge’s persona and the marine aesthetic promotes an appreciation of nature; Nudge and his story is conveyed realistically. In order to scaffold the knowledge component of the affective aims, I included a fact and solutions page at the end of Nudge’s Tale with information that details the story’s location, outcome and tips for marine conservation.
Significantly the book ends on a positive note and demonstrates how people’s conservation practices can save dolphins.
73 As I honour my own Pacific Indigenous lineage, contextualising Nudge’s
Tale within Indigenous history and coastal ecology was imperative for me.
The ancestral image of Nudge’s pod fishing with Indigenous Australians symbolises Indigenous ecological balance between people and nature, and espouses the wisdom of this process. My research had revealed that dolphins fished with Indigenous Australians in coastal areas such as
Moreton Bay (Petrie, 1981). A series of discussions with Professor Evans
(2007, 2008) confirmed the credibility of communal fishing practices and affirmed appropriateness for their inclusion in Nudge’s Tale. I was mindful of respecting the custodians of Australia’s Indigenous stories. By depicting communal fishing from the dolphins’ perspective (as shown below) I sought to represent local Indigenous history without implying ownership.
74 My aim of combining realism with creativity is to stimulate, enthuse and educate children. Children reading Nudge’s Tale have connected with Nudge empathising with him, understanding the environmental issues he faced and probing further. My hope is that readers will want to help Nudge and other marine animals and that such raised awareness and curiosity will further their environmental understanding of the coastal waters and foster an environmental ethic and future action.
75 Conclusion
This exegesis explores the merging of fiction and non-fiction photography genres in children’s picturebooks. Writing on genre-hybridising, Hutcheon proposes, “the most radical boundaries crossed have been those between fiction and non-fiction, and by extension – between art and life” (2002: 10).
The research question for this exegesis is:
How does photography merge real and imaginary worlds in
children’s picturebooks?
Photography merges real and imaginary worlds through the use of traditional and digital photographic techniques. These techniques relate to appeal and authenticity, genre mixing, abstraction, plot strategies, layout and evoking emotion to educate. I arrived at these findings through a literature review and artistic audit of the works of contemporary picturebook and photographic practicioners who fused contrasting worlds. Additional research methodology included focus group, industry collaborations and workshops, and education pedagogy processes. This research culminated in the outcome of Nudge’s Tale, my creative practice.
Nudge’s Tale merges “art and life” (Hutcheon, 2002: 10). By fusing realism and creativity, Nudge’s Tale demonstrates this project’s research paradigm of photographic hybridising in a children’s picturebook. My creative practice
76 bridges real and imaginary worlds, through traditional and digital photography. It documents Nudge’s story and attributes authentically, yet with aesthetics and emotion to promote an empathetic response in the reader. Concomitantly, Nudge’s Tale is both creative practice and an example of the way in which the research question can be answered. It is an example of genre-hybrid practice and creative photography in children’s literature. Such emerging practices are worthy of future development and analysis.
In conclusion, the experience of producing a creative practice outcome is ultimately a personal process that extends beyond the confines of words. As the mythologist Joseph Campbell says:
“Ask an artist what his picture ‘means’ and you will not soon ask
such a question again. Significant images render insights beyond
speech, beyond the kinds of meaning speech defines. And if they
do not speak to you, that is because you are not ready for them,
and words will only serve to make you think you have
understood, thus cutting you off altogether. You don’t ask what a
dance means, you enjoy it” (Mullen, 1998: 42).
I aspire for Nudge’s Tale to ultimately surpass analysis, with visual imagery propelling Nudge from watery page to reader’s hearts, evoking a poignant experience and contributing to positive future outcomes.
77 Appendix
Page Image Creator Source
10 Roots Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 12 Shark Puppetry Bridgette McKelvey Creative practice 1, 2 & 3 14 Great White Steve Parish Australian Sharks & Rays 15 Dolphins 1 and 2 Ian Andrews Back to the Blue 16 Tomato Lauren Child I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato 18 Wolf Playing Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls Bassoon 19 Artefacts Shaun Tan The Arrival 21 Mt Fuji Fluff Lauren Child I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato 23 Carrot Text Lauren Child I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato 23 Uluru Armchairs Lauren Child My Uncle is a Hunkle 24 The Tree Lauren Child Which Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? 24 Dishy Dates Lauren Child Which Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? 25 Bonsai Tree Lauren Child & The Princess and the Pea Princess Polly Borland 26 At the Window Lauren Child & The Princess and the Pea Polly Borland 26 Making the Bed Lauren Child & The Princess and the Pea Polly Borland 27 Cover Shaun Tan The Arrival 28 Kitchen Table Shaun Tan The Arrival 29 Escape Shaun Tan The Arrival 30 Cover Shaun Tan The Lost Thing 31 Bottle Tops Shaun tan The Lost Thing 32 Cover Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls 33 The Lounge Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls 33 Around the Fire Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls 34 In the Garden Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls 35 Book Stack Dave McKean The Wolves in the Walls 36 Undersea Desert David Doubilet Water, Light, Time
To be continued…
78
… Continued Page Image Creator Source
37 Wave, Shadow, David Doubilet Water, Light, Time Light and Mullet 39 Harbour Seal David Doubilet Water, Light, Time with Kelp 42 At the Library Bridgette McKelvey Research Methodology 44 Connecting with Bridgette McKelvey Research Methodology Images, 1 & 2 45 Panoramic Bridgette McKelvey Research Methodology 46 Engaging with Bridgette McKelvey Research Methodology Victoria Bridge, 1 & 2 46 Underwater Bridgette McKelvey Research Methodology 48 Cover Jeannie Baker Where the Forest Meets the Sea 51 Cover Graeme Base Uno’s Garden 55 Nudge Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 57 Mother and Child Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 58 Nudge Surfaces Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 59 Pod Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 61 The Rescuer, Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 1 & 2 61 Rescue Boat 1 EPA Brisbane City Council 61 Rescue Boat 2 Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 62 Nudge in Scape Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 63 A Pair Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 64 Night Closing In Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 65 Layers: People Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice Fish Fins Ancestral Fishing 66 Alone Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 67 Upside Down Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 68 Nudge’s Tail 1 EPA Brisbane City Council 68 Nudge’s Tail 2 Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 70 Nudge in Scape Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 70 The Net Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 70 The Rescuer Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice 71 Fig Tree Jeannie Baker Where the Forest Meets the Sea 74 Ancestral Fishing Bridgette McKelvey Creative Practice
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