In 1838, Louis Daguerre has just invented photography and has taken his daguerreotype with him to Greece to visit a friend while determining whether he should share this invention with the world. While there, Marko, a student and inventor, makes improvements to the device and shows how it can be used in ways not imagined to its inventor.

While Daguerre and his invention are real, the rest of the characters and the story is fictional; photography is used to frame the story of a Greek family, emigration, and home. The side plot about Marko’s sister Io and their mom was my favorite part of the story. I would definitely recommend this for those interested in a story about 19th century Greek life than those looking to learn more about the invention of photography. The drawings and color palette were beautiful in this graphic novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I really didn't like the art style at all. The story has an interesting premise, but didn't work well for me.

I am giving this a four due to the way i love the art style. The story for me is more of a 3/3.5. I liked it but I think i needed more. It had okay flow but wasn't 100% my jam, which is perfectly okay not everything is for me. I liked parts of where the story was going and learning more about the origins of photography.

Book 160 of 200 ~ 2023

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Though it is a fictional take, I found out that Daguerre was the one who did create this photograph technique IRL! And yes, he shared it with the world.

Balanced out story with humour and social insights, this was quite an impressive debut, hence the extra star!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#book160of200 #amreading #netgalley #tbrpile #instareads #readstagram
#reading #bookreview #bookreviewer #booklover #booksAreLife #booksForTheWin #thisbookfairyisreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramfeature #bookshelf #booksofinstagram #bookish #bookworm #goodreads #booklovers #theSGbookfairyReads #theSGtrekkiereads #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookchallenge2023 #reviews #lovebooks #booknerds

This graphic novel was inspired by the earliest days of photography. The art is nice, but the fictional story is very insubstantial, and it's difficult to follow, with lots of unrelated things happening and random conversations between different characters. At first, I had a hard time determining what was just stage-setting and what was plot-relevant, and then I concluded that there wasn't really a plot at all. I found this disappointing.

I really appreciated reading this graphic novel. I don’t normally read graphic novels but this was a pleasant reading experience with a good storyline, though the characters did fall flat for me.

The art style was the best part of the novel, it was stunning and complemented the storyline very well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in an exchange for an honest review.

A graphic novel about the beginnings of photography, though this was a work of fiction that didn't stick to the facts. As a photographer I was pretty excited to get this arc, but I didn't find the story very compelling. I would have been happier if they stuck to the true history, but having some of it be false and not even to make a great story, it fell flat. I wasn't the most fond of the art style for this subject, but the colors were great. The text was pretty small for the size of the pages.

I loved this graphic novel. Daguerre arrives to a Greek island carrying his daguerreotype, an invention that lets you capture moments. He wants to share it with his friend Takis and we follow this story along with the life of Takis's apprentice, Marko. The artwork is so pretty, respecting the white and blue colours of the Aegean. Really cute story.

The art style of this graphic novel was nicely done but not really my preferred style. It had a pretty consistent color palette, but the colors felt a bit muted to me. I typically prefer graphic novels with either more vibrant colors or darker color palettes, but I could definitely see other readers really liking the colors and consistency used here. I think the cover is a good representative of the art and colors used throughout the graphic novel. As for the story itself, I unfortunately didn't really click with it. It kind of meandered and wasn't very exciting or interesting to me. I think my main issue is that I didn't feel anything for the main character. Usually when I read, I am motivated by a like of the main character and wanting to know more about them. Or alternatively, I can be motivated by a very exciting plot. This graphic novel didn't have either for me: I didn't particularly like the main character because he wasn't very interesting to me, and the plot didn't feel that exciting. This unfortunately led to me DNF-ing the graphic novel. But I wouldn't say it was bad, it just wasn't for me. I could definitely see other people really enjoying the story if it suits them more. I would say storywise this would get 2/5 stars but I think the art bumps this up to 2.5/5 stars, since I can't do half stars, I rounded up to 3/5.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and the author/artist for the ARC I read.

An incredibly illustrated fictitious graphic novel of the inventor of photography.
As much as I adored the graphics. The storyline felt a bit long with the story text a bit too much to read in some panels.

When I first read this, I hated it. The characters seemed annoying and I didn't care about their stories... but when I reread it, I loved it. It made me feel warm, it made me love the characters and their stories. It was a beautifully drawn story and it was touching while educational. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

It's been a while now since I actually read this graphic novel and I think that the fact that I can barely recall anything other than the color palette speaks for itself.

But if I were to go into detail about it, I'd say this; about Daguerre it is not, it simply uses the origin of the photograph to open some discussions about belonging, the idea of home, the idea of capturing yourself in a moment in which you may have felt like you were home, and immigrating / not immigrating.

It is incredibly thin when it comes to plot, though. There's so little of it that it's nearly translucent and what is there did not grab me whatsoever. I literally could not tell you almost any of it aside from bits and pieces here and there and the topics that I mentioned above. The characters didn't feel very lively; if anything, they mostly felt like embodiments of whatever discussion they were the device for.

However - and this is why I remember the color palette - Greece is special to my heart. I genuinely don't think that there's a single other place in this world that inspires me quite as much in such capacity. And I genuinely think that not really the style itself but the palette captured it perfectly. It felt like I was there and it made my heart ache, and I think that's the part of the graphic novel that was done really, really well. If the author managed to combine the plot/writing with how much comes across with just the colors. Maybe next time.

The art was great. But there was just something missing from the story. It just went nowhere and took its sweet time getting there. There was a very innovative panel structure and style. If there was just a story to go with it that would have been something. Giving it 3 for the art would be 1 for the story alone.

As a photographer, I was really excited to read this graphic novel. The story is one I’ve never seen told before and I assumed it would lend itself well to a visual format.

I was right about it looking great. The art style was wonderful, I loved how the characters would often come out of the frame, it really made them seem alive. Their designs were lovely as well. I particularly liked Io, she was really cool.

I also enjoyed the colour palette, but I didn’t really get why a lot of the settings were left white. It made the pages seem unfinished, in my opinion.

The story was where I really struggled. It took a lot of work to follow and the addition of trying to add complex characters made it almost impossible (for me) to understand. There were too many instances of non-succinct language being used and having to read over a speech bubble multiple times really takes you out of the story.

I feel like Portraits would have benefitted from not adding in additional plotlines. If it stayed true to the creation of photography and didn't add the subplot of female social injustice (an important issue but it detracted from the main story) it would have been a much stronger story. I personally felt like the photography storyline got pushed to the side.

Speaking of the story, I really started to skim it near the end. This does mean I probably missed something important, but I got the jist of it from the images. Unfortunately, I did not find this graphic novel engaging in the slightest, but that doesn’t mean you won’t.

I really enjoyed the concept of this graphic novel. It tells us about Daguerre who invented the camera, and how he trusts his college friend with news of his invention. However Takis, the friend, instead lets a young inventive man in his Greek village play around with it. This changes the course of history, by opening up Daguerre to share his invention with the world and capture life for art and connection.

I did like the story, however, the narrative felt rushed often and there wasn't enough explanation for character relationships. Specifically, I think scenes were rushed between Io and her mother, not explaining enough about why there is tension.

I think where the narrative did fall for me, the art kept everything going. I love the illustration style that focused on highlighting the characters and key items in color, but leaving most of the background black and white to emphasize their story. I hadn't seen this before, and found the use of color to be a great storytelling method and meaningful.

This was a great graphic novel but I would be happier if it was the first book in a series. There are so many characters with interesting background in the story: I want to know what's happening to Marko and Daguerre in Paris, whether Io stays in Greece for good, how Taki's life is going. The illustrations are really nice.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for an Advance Review Copy.

The art and narration in this Portraits was solid, but it wasn't for me. The individual scenes were beautifully rendered in an almost gouache-y style that served the setting well. I truly enjoyed the art style and coloring but didn't find the plot engaging. I was more interested in the sponge-diving mother than the progression of the camera. I can see the appeal, but it was a miss for me.

I'm a photograph enthusiast and I love graphic novels so this book was such a good read! I was very interested in the discovery of the machine itself but the storytelling around it was so much better and profound.
I felt like I got to know them so much better and the relationships between them were beautifully written.
I'm also glad the book had a feel-good ending.

This was a good graphic novel, not great but good.

The story begins with the inventor of photography arriving in Greece. He doesn’t want to share it with the world just yet because it is unfinished. We then meet who I consider to be the main character who changes lives forever.

I really enjoyed the art style of this graphic novel. The colors used were really great as well.

What was less than enjoyable was the text size on each page was way too small. I read it on my 9.7 inch iPad and still had to bring it close to my face to see it.

All in all, I loved learning about the history of photography (though I was surprised to learn some of it was fictionalized for the graphic novel).

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

1838. Louis Daguerre disembarks on a small island in the Aegean Sea, carrying heavy clothes and a heavier crate. The trunk contains a daguerreotype, which its inventor secretly wants to present to an old friend. But Taki's house is all the way up, on top of the island... Meanwhile, Marko Gavras, Taki's apprentice, defends his bike, the vehicle of the future, against the postman who clearly doesn't trust technology and prefers his donkey :)

After a series of adventures, Taki decides to entrust Marko with the daguerreotype - the perfect tool for stopping time in its tracks, dousing homesickness and portraying a gallery of charismatic characters: Marko, the apprentice inventor who wants to grow up and feels both protected and trapped on the island, Io, his sister, a soprano who studies in Vienna because their mother did everything so that her daughter wouldn't go through the same sufferings as she did, Simo, a shoemaker who creates super modern shoes, Taki, a clichéd Greek sage :) and above all the island itself and its people.

The story is completely fictional, but it's cute, full of humour and little social criticism episodes, and, above all, it respects historical truth, even if it doesn't respect technical truth at all - after all, Daguerre really did give his invention to all mankind, so why should the details matter? :)

(for those who don't know, Daguerre was the first inventor to succeed in fixing the image on a physical support, the first functional photographic technique)

Beyond the story, the album is surprising for two other reasons: 1. it's a very polished debut, and 2. it belongs to a modern renaissance man (programmer, system architect, designer, illustrator, motivational speaker, globetrotter, etc.) self-taught hobbyist. I was left speechless by how much Nikos Tsouknidas did, and in how many fields. Either way, industrious he certainly is - and he has an artist's eye and heart. I hope the pictures convince you.

Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This didn't influence my opinion in any way.