Talking Pictures

“I’m absolutely fascinated by Ransom Riggs’s [series] Talking Pictures—themed collections of found photographs that happen to have writing on them. Usually, there’s just enough written to make each image more powerful, and leave you wanting more.”
—Boingboing.com

Growing up in South Florida—the land of junk stores, garage sales and big-tent flea markets—Ransom Riggs collected pictures of people he didn’t know. Searching through endless dusty aisles of old stuffed animals, mismatched dishes, and needlepoint portraits, Riggs would find boxes of yellowing snapshots, discarded by old folks who had died or children who hadn’t seen fit to save them. As hundreds of unknown faces from unknown locals stared back at him, Riggs found himself searching a particular kind of photograph—those with writing on the back or sides.

Talking Pictures is a stunning collection of found images from the past—men, women, and children pulled from obscurity, posing for unknown cameraman. Yet, upon closer inspection, each image reveals something greater—an inscription that has the ability to open up a new world. In Talking Pictures Riggs shows us how a few scribbled lines can turn a blurry black-and-white snapshot of people who seem a million miles and a million years away into an intensely personal sliver of experience that anyone can relate to. Grouped into categories like “Love and Marriage,” “Road Trip,” “Clowning Around,” and “The Dead,” the images reveal secrets, express pain and longing, and capture moments of honesty like no other medium. With a single phrase, each haunting image becomes something not just to look at, but to listen to.