CCBC-Net Archives

Re: Using photos

From: Sharron L. McElmeel <mcelmeels_at_uwstout.edu>
Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:42:50 -0500

I'm sure this does happen -- and with other cultures too (if only we knew) and with illustrations. A friend illustrated a book about the Amish, actually a fiction book about the community raising a barn. The era was 1950's, and while the editor was very intent on everything being accurate when it came to showing the men mixing cement for the barn's foundation the editor wanted a "mud pan" - a form where the men would have hand mixed the cement. The consultant (an Amish man who advised the artist on everything from knots to types of clothing) said, "Oh, we would have had a big ole' cement truck backed in here." -- Editor still did not want a truck included in the illustrations as surely reviewers would think the book was not authentic. Artist did not want to perpetuate the stereotypes so he omitted that visual. Too bad, a chance to depict the Amish accurately and by omission we have still kept them using mud pans. Sharron McElmeel

On 4/2/12 5:19 AM, Debbie Reese wrote: Anytime someone uses photos of American Indians, I pay particular attention because of that sort of misuse. In his dissertation, Matthew Martinez (of Ohkay Owingeh) looked at photos used in travel/tourist brochures. He writes of one that shows Pueblo women baking bread outside in the ponte's we still use. In the photo, there is a metal bucket. Behind them is an adobe home, with glass windows, and power lines above/behind it. In the brochure, that photo was changed. The bucket became a stump, the glass was removed from the windows and power lines gone, too.

-- Sharron L. McElmeel Instructor University of Wisconsin - Stout RDGED 703 Children's Literature in the Reading Program RDGED 704 Young Adult Literature in the Reading Program Home _at_ Cedar Rapids IOWA e-mail: mcelmeels@uwstout.edu phone: (319) 393-2562 (in CST zone)
Received on Mon 02 Apr 2012 07:42:50 AM CDT