All the pictures in this book are authentic, vintage found photographs, and with the exception of a few that have undergone minimal postprocessing, they are unaltered. They were lent from the personal archives of ten collectors, people who have spent years and countless hours hunting through giant bins of unsorted snapshots at flea markets and antiques malls and yard sales to find a transcendent few, rescuing images of historical significance and arresting beauty from obscurity—and, most likely, the dump. Their work is an unglamorous labor of love, and I think they are the unsung heroes of the photography world.
What follows is a list of all the photographs and their respective collectors.
The Invisible Boy (Robert Jackson)
The Levitating Girl (Yefim Tovbis)
Boy Lifting Boulder (Robert Jackson)
The Painted Head (Robert Jackson)
Abe Napping (Robert Jackson)
The Girl in the Bottle (Robert Jackson)
The Floating Baby (Peter Cohen)
The Boy-Faced Dog (Robert Jackson)
The Contortionist (Robert Jackson)
The Masked Ballerinas (Robert Jackson)
Miss Peregrine’s Silhouette (Robert Jackson)
Boy in Bunny Costume (Robert Jackson)
Girls at the Beach (The Thanatos Archive)
The Reflecting Pool (Peter Cohen)
A Boy and His Bees (Robert Jackson)
The Snacking Ballerinas (Robert Jackson)
Emma in the Dark (Muriel Moutet)
The Cairn Tunnel (Martin Isaac)
Fighter Planes (Robert Jackson)
Miss Peregrine (The author)
Miss Finch (Roselyn Leibowitz)
Miss Avocet and Her Wards (Julia Lauren)
Miss Finch’s Loop (Roselyn Leibowitz)
Claire’s Golden Curls (David Bass)
Our Beautiful Display (Robert Jackson)
Bronwyn Bruntley (Robert Jackson)
Girl with Chicken (John Van Noate)
Jill and the Beanstalk (Robert Jackson)
A Follower of Fashion (Robert Jackson)
Miss Nightjar Takes All the Hard Cases (The author)
Enoch’s Dolls (David Bass)
Victor (Robert Jackson)
My Bombshell (Peter Cohen)
Peeling Spuds (Robert Jackson)
Emma’s Silhouette (Robert Jackson)
This is Why (Robert Jackson)
A Hunting Trip (The author)
Department Store Santa (The author)
Victorian Dentist (The Thanatos Archive)
Marcie and the Wight (Robert Jackson)
The Vision (Peter Cohen)
Caw Caw Caw (Roselyn Leibowitz)
Abe and Emma (Robert Jackson)
We Rowed Faster (Robert Jackson)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank:
Everyone at Quirk, especially Jason Rekulak, for his seemingly endless patience and many excellent ideas; Stephen Segal, for his close readings and sharp insights; and Doogie Horner, certainly the most talented book designer/stand-up comic working today.
My wonderful and tenacious agent, Kate Shafer Testerman.
My wife Abbi, for cheerfully enduring long months of nervous pacing and beard growth on my part, and her parents, Barry and Phyllis, for their support, and Barry’s parents, Gladys and Abraham, whose story of survival inspired me.
Mom, to whom I owe everything, obviously.
All my photo collector friends: the very generous Peter Cohen; Leonard Lightfoot, who introduced me around; Roselyn Leibowitz; Jack Mord of the Thanatos Archive; Steve Bannos; John Van Noate; David Bass; Martin Isaac; Muriel Moutet; Julia Lauren; Yefim Tovbis; and especially Robert Jackson, in whose living room I spent many pleasant hours looking at peculiar photographs.
Chris Higgins, whom I consider a leading authority on time travel, for always taking my calls.
Laurie Porter, who took the photo of me that appears on the jacket of this book while we were exploring some weird abandoned shacks in the Mojave desert.