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Part of
Photography in Children's Literature
Edited by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 17] 2023
► pp. 144–167

Chapter 6
“A successful photograph is worth as much as a story”

Photography’s influence on Bruno Munari’s books

Bruno Munari was an Italian artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who combined art and design to great effect in his visual art and books. During his long, interdisciplinary career, Munari experimented with many artistic possibilities: painting, illustration, sculpture, design, graphics, teaching, poetry, and writing. He also cultivated a peculiar relationship with photography. This chapter investigates photography’s influence on Munari’s poetics, from Futurism and other Avant-garde movements to the Bauhaus and László Moholy-Nagy’s work, graphic design experimentation, and collaborations with photographers. His multifaceted approach can be investigated through two editorial project typologies: photocollage and photographic picturebooks. What is discussed is how historic, artistic, and cultural photography influenced his children’s works and to what extent photographic experimentation affected Munari’s creativity and aesthetics in his original books.

Article outline
  • Munari’s photographic investigations: Historic, artistic, and cultural connections
    • Impact of Futurism and other avant-garde movements
    • The Impact of the Bauhaus and László Moholy-Nagy’s work
    • Impact of graphic-design experimentation
    • Impact of experimentation with light and projections
    • Impact of collaborations with photographers
  • Photography in Munari’s picturebooks
    • Picturebooks with photocollage
    • Le macchine di Munari
    • Cappuccetto Giallo
  • Photographic picturebooks
    • Da lontano era un’isola
    • Ciccì Coccò
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.17.06cam
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