One Winter Morning....
'Peter woke up and looked out the window.
Snow had fallen during the night.
It covered everything, as far as he could see'
The Snowy Day, 1962
This past Christmas, one of my favorite gifts was a copy of The Snowy Day by author Ezra Jack Keats. The gift came from one of my older brothers who remembered how much I used to love the book when I was a kid. The short story, which focus's on a child's reaction to a first snowfall, was one I loved to pull out and read every winter. The copy I had became worn and torn and was put in a box and eventually thrown out by my mother. I had always planned on picking up another copy, and the gift had a lot of meaning.
When I was a kid, I didn't really realize the attention, both positive, and critical, surrounding the book. Sure, I noticed Peter was black, but wasn't aware that when the novel was first published, it was one of the first mainstream children's book to incorporate a story and artwork with a black family. I was focused on the snow, and how alike my and Peter's reactions were to it.
Keats was inspired by a set of photographs of a black child from a 1940 edition of Life magazine that had hung in his studio for over two decades. Although the artwork inspired the story, the connection came from Keates own memories of snowy days from childhood in Brooklyn. While the author was not trying to make a statement about race, The Snowy Days was one of the first books to featured a non-caricatured African American protagonist.
Some critics questions how Keats, white Jewish man, could tell the story of a black child. Early reviews noted some of the collage illustrations, and challenged how authentic the depiction of race and culture. Although criticized, many welcomed the never before seen positivity. Prior to the story, most children of color were written with a heavy reliance on negative stereotypes. One teacher who wrote the author commented that after the book was read in her class, some of her students picked up brown crayons, for the very first time, when creating their self-portraits. This alone is a powerful statement about the stories impact.
After Christmas, when I put the book away on my shelf, I wanted in some way to commemorate it. I ended up buying a second copy on Amazon in order to frame, and hang the front cover in my living room. I also wanted to do something on the site. Given it was children's novel, I didn't want to sexualize it in any way, but FH readers are keenly aware that like Peter, I get excited every winter with the first site. I immediately knew which artist to contact about images to celebrate the book, and the story.
Few artists integrate such passionate joy and reverence for their city that Richard Rothstein. His passion isn't limited to the just the beauty of New York during the summer. Some of my favorite shoots from Richard include his shoots with model during the Autumn and winter. One of my favorite winter shoots was Richard's work with dancer Chris Bell that featured a few years ago. (A Blizzarding Ballet)
I thought it was the perfect shoot to celebrate the story. I had thought however, that I had already featured most of the images from the shoot in the first post. I was wrong! Richard sent on more images from the shoot, most of which I'd not seen before and that were not featured in the original piece. Richard's images, and Chris's energy and enthusiasm, beautifully embody the joy and passion of Peter's reaction to that first snowy day.
For even the most passionate snow lovers, the winter does tent to take a toll, and for most of us, our enthusiasm wains as the season goes on, and on... I loved however, that both Richard and Chris so perfectly captured the beauty and the quiet, but intense, energy of an early winter's day. Keats told his story with words and artwork while Richard and Chris tell a similar story with visuals and dance. If you want to see more of Chris on the snowy day, check out the NEXT PAGE HERE:
