Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book

Reading Time: 4 minutes

From reading the title, some of you are thinking, “Wait, you’ve already reviewed this one!” I’m not that forgetful, and as it turns out, good things come in twos. Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book is the second art book to come out on the camera theme this year. And though it’s a hard fought battle, I think this new Megami Magazine production is the better of the two pictorial books.

While both books include excellent artists, it’s easy to see that Megami Magazine has a stronger pull when attracting more of the big name artists to participate. Redjuice, Takamichi, and Koutaro each contributed a poster to the pictorial collection and there was a poster version of the cover art by Hanuharu Naruko as well. Only the illustration by Takamichi was repeated on the inside. Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book is B5-sized and 112 pages.

Much like with the Digital Camera Girl Famous Views Art Book, each illustration is placed next to a page of camera information. The camera information is a lot more detailed in Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book, with photos of the cameras, along with front and back views showing settings and functions available. The above illustration is by Fuyuno Haruaki.

This collection showcases a great collection of names. Pictured above from left to right are KEI, Noriyuki Matsumoto, and Kouji Ogata. One thing that stood out in Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book was the emphasis on illustrating the camera and all its details, which was sometimes glossed over in the other book with faraway scenes. John Hathway’s illustration is beautifully detailed in every aspect from the dress, to the background, and the camera.

I’m really quite partial to Ugetsu Hakua’s illustrations, so I was thrilled to see his work included, especially because he rarely participates in this kind of compilation book. Midori Foo, whose art work graced both Moeru Japanese Sword Girls and Headphone Girls A Pictorial Book, delivers another stunner in this camera collection.

The artists pictured above from left to right are Nilitsu, Shunsuke Taue, and Juu Ayakura. I was really a fan of just about every picture in here, but Shunsuke Taue’s illustration really stood out with a beautifully detailed underwater scene. It was also unexpected to see one from Takigawa Yuu, another artist who doesn’t usually participate in these kinds of books.

Surprisingly, there were a few artists who had an illustration in both Digital Camera Girl Famous Views and Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book. The overlapping artists I noticed were Tokiame, Takamichi (who had the cover of the other one along with a poster in this one), and Nanakusa (whose illustration for both had a similarly styled girl). In total, there are 39 artists participating.

Before the end of the color section of the book, there are six pages with quick tutorials about taking photos in different settings and adjusting for light accordingly. It even touches on photographing cosplayers and figures. The color pages end on page 93, with the monochrome pages featuring a short comic along with some picturing taking techniques and the index. Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book ends up being another enjoyable pictorial book with an impressive selection of artists that really does manage to stand out in a crowd.