It’s hard to say which images threw me for a loop without giving too much away. I was desperate to know.Īnd now, I am still dying to know–what were the images that threw you for a loop? (I know there must have been some!)ĭL: That’s so funny – I had no idea they were images for a vampire film! I’m quite glad I didn’t write a vampire story. But, let me tell you, there were SO many times that I wanted to ask you what you were writing.

After that, though, I really let each new image be a discovery. I was fascinated by the idea that a photo could tell multiple stories, so I asked DJ if he would mind if I used a few of those images for this project. I actually took that photo for a completely different project–a vampire film my friend DJ was working on. I knew he needed to be the main character, and I knew that I wanted the rest of my photographs to have that mysterious quality. I started, as you said, with the picture of the boy. Was I going to send you a series of random images (a telephone, a monkey, a flower, or whatever), or was I going to try to construct my own narrative? I toyed with the idea of using completely random images, but I ended up being more intrigued by the idea of developing a story of my own and seeing what you would do with it. JF: Well, right in the beginning, that was the big decision. What was that like? Did you construct a narrative in your head as you gave me the photos, or was it random? Of course, the whole time I was writing, you were giving me photos one by one, without having any idea what the story was.

I had no idea who he was, why he had that expression, where he was, who or what he was looking at … and I found my answer right there. Then one day I saw the photo of Ryan on your refrigerator door – the one that’s now on the cover or our book – and I was transfixed. Why didn’t you use your own photos for this book?ĭL: I’d always loved the idea of a photographic novel – if you can have a graphic novel, why not a photographic novel? But the problem was that when I looked at my own photographs, I knew exactly who was in them, and where they were. There wasn’t any mystery. JF: David, you take lots of photographs yourself – at least one a day for the past ten years. Here, they discuss their collaboration with each other. David wrote the text, which is accompanied by Jonathan’s photos. The book tells of a young man’s psychological unraveling, as he attempts to figure out who is stalking him and leaving him the chilling photographs. Today, we are thrilled to welcome author David Levithan and photographer Jonathan Farmer, who have collaborated on a thrilling and unusual young adult novel, Every You, Every Me, on sale this week.

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan