My Favorite Photography Books for Kids | Whitney Beth Photography
 

When I was little and in elementary school I wanted to read through the entire library. I didn’t quite make it, but I came pretty close. I’ve always loved books - and at one point I wanted to be a writer and illustrator for children’s books. So with Jones reading now we’ve been bringing more books home. Both of my boys love taking pictures - whether it’s on their cameras, toy cameras, map phone, or the few occasions I let them use my big camera. I started to look up children’s books related to photography - both in story and in learning. After a quick trip to the library (and cleaning out their entire section) we found some great options that I wanted to share with you!

Picture Day Perfection By Deborah Diesen

My boys loved this one! You follow the main character through his series of unfortunate events leading up to “picture day” at school. It has a pretty cute ending and makes pictures feel fun and something to look forward too.

Operation Photobomb By Tara Luebbe & Becky Cattie

This book has cute and vibrant pictures and follows along a monkey, his Polaroid he picked up from a jungle tour and his photobombing friend, Chameleon.  

Russell and the Lost Treasure By Rob Scotton

A cute story book about a sheep and how he finds a treasure full of old stuff - even a camera! He uses the camera to take pictures of things that are important to him. 

Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee! By Andrea J Loney

This book features James VanDerZee and how he took photos of everyone and documented an important era in Harlem while showing off the beauty and pride he had for them.

The Bluest of Blues By Fiona Robinson

The most beautiful and eye pleasing book I’ve read in awhile. This book features the biography of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. Anna used the Cyanotype as a way to document all of her botanical discoveries. 

Snowflake Bentley By Jacquline Briggs

This Picture book follows William Bentley, the first known photographer of the snowflake, on his quest to figure out a way to make snow flakes last.

Antsy Ansel By Cindy Jensen Elliot

This adorably relatable book tells of how when Ansel Adams was little, he could never sit still. This book’s illustrations are lovely and the story really paints a picture of what Ansel was like and his never ending urge to learn.

For the older kids who want to dive a bit deeper:

Black and White Photographs to Instagram By Jennifer Colby

This book does a brief rundown of the photography timeline. Starting with the first photograph process to ending with Smartphones in the digital era

Muybridge and the Riddle of Locomotion By Marta Braun

This book is really cool and gives a brief history of Muybridge and his fast shutter speeds to capture how movement in animals and other thangs work. The boys loved it since it has holographic images that you can move back and forth to see how the photographs, when stacked together, make the animal move. 

Be a Super Awesome Photographer - 20 photo challenges inspired by the masters By Henry Carrol

This book is great for kids who want to get into photography. It uses examples of photographers to give the reader prompts and challenges. Every so often it has a spread with illustrations breaking down composition, and other basic points to photography. 

A History of Pictures - For Children By David Hockney & Martin Gaylord

This book isn’t entirely about photography, but it was too beautifully composed an filled with amazing pictures to not include it. And since all art inspires art, I thought it was a worthy note. It takes you on a brief history of different kinds of art and the pictures they produced.

So have I convinced you into a trip to the library? If you end up reading any of these, let me know ho you liked them!