Jennifer and Her Camera.
New York City: ca. 1950. Item #1053 Original hand-made children’s story book set in New York City and illustrated with black and white photographs. The narrative tells the story of Jennifer and Peter’s visit to the skating rink in Central Park while their parents are out of town. They are supervised by their Aunt Josephine and Jennifer carries a camera to document their excursion. The content of each photograph is different, yet each contains similar elements. The background of the cityscape are black and white drawings, and the two children and Aunt Josephine are represented by “pipe cleaner dolls” which are positioned before the various backgrounds. The children are dressed in stocking caps and scarves and are accompanied by their dog Hannibal, also made of “pipe cleaners”. Each photograph has a typed text pasted to the lower margin of the page explaining the scene and each description is made up of one or two short sentences. The production value of this story book suggests a very sophisticated family with access to various media to present the story. The background settings of the photos are well drawn images of New York City and capture the atmosphere around the Upper East Side near Central Park. The “pipe cleaner dolls” are very well formed and give the photos a three dimensional quality that draws the attention of the viewer and gives the image a highly finished look. They legends that appear at the bottom of the page are not hand written but typed suggesting the intervention of an adult hand in the production. So, the question may be asked, what part did the children play in the making of this very special book. Jennifer may have written the story of their adventure while their parents were away. She may very well have been the photographer taking the photos for the book. The children could very well have set the poses of the characters and when the photos were printed and ready for insertion into the book, they may have assembled the book, pasted-in the photos and the text, and prepared it as a gift to Mrs. Eisler of Eastchester. In any event, Jennifer and her brother Peter documented a wonderful visit to the ice rink in Central Park and helped to produce a book which became a memento of this event for someone to cherish for years to come.
Oblong folio. 280 x 360 mm.; [11 x 14 inches]. 14 pp., illustrated with 14 large black and white photographs. Bound in a large paper pad of thick paper stock; leaves loose from binding. An ownership sticker with the name Mrs. Paul E. Eisler of Eastchester, New York is pasted to the front cover.
Price: $2,000.00