Talking Pictures is a collaboration between Hamelin and Steven Guarnaccia, conceived in 2018 in partnership with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Publishers Weekly, on the occasion of the first New York Rights Fair, to explore the cultural importance and ongoing impact of the contemporary international visual book. It comprises an exhibit during the book fair, a series of seminars, plus an award for the best visual book.
Talking Pictures is interested in those books that blur the borders between contemporary commercial publishing and the latest currents in small-press book-making. We recognize the need for, and champion the creation of, books that attract the broadest diversity of readerships across a range of age groups, interests and cultures, and that unite various image-making disciplines, books that will in turn give rise to commercially viable innovation in contemporary publishing.
In order to give greater visibility to a wider variety of projects and to more diverse markets, Talking Pictures highlights excellence in visual print production, through the presentation of selected books of the highest quality, along with a deep exploration of themes and topics supporting the selection.
Each year Talking Pictures focuses on the production of a specific country through its best visual books, and on its authors and publishers. Ukraine was 2024’s region, and our partner was the Kyiv National Book Arsenal Festival. Ukraine has an important and underacknowledged tradition in printing, illustration and graphic design, and has long produced visual books of the highest quality.