Growing the Fir Tree

In the early 80s, living in Lausanne, Switzerland, I was tasked with art directing a series of 20 fairytales for Creative Education, a children’s book publisher based out of Mankato, Minnesota. For eighteen of the books I chose French, Italian, German, Canadian, and American illustrators. For variety, and also for the challenge, I decided to work with two photographers for The Little Red Riding Hood and The Fir Tree. 

Sarah Moon, the French photographer, known at the time for her photographs for Cacherel, was thrilled with the idea of creating The Little Red Riding Hood, her first children’s book. She chose to do it in black and white. The Little Red Riding Hood garnered critical reviews, as the ominous final image in the book, a dark, empty bed with the disheveled sheets, was preceded by frightening dark shadows of the girl and the wolf with large teeth projected on the wall. It was banned in some U.S. libraries.

Swiss photographer, Marcel Imsand, known for his photojournalism throughout Switzerland didn’t hesitate to accept the offer of photo-illustrating The Fir Tree, also in black and white.  Imsand and I worked as a team to create the images for The Fir Tree. He had many ideas on how to proceed and we discussed the possibilities at length—even if my French at the time was quite marginal. While living in Switzerland and in Denver, I had been an art director at advertising agencies and had many years of experience working with illustrators, photographers, and film directors. I was thrilled to be working on this book, which was not the first one I had done with Marcel. While on the job, I discovered a young Italian boy at the local pool,Parc de Mon Repos, and convinced his mother that he should be our tree.

She was familiar with Marcel’s images which were everywhere in Switzerland at the time, and was honored to have her son be part of the project. His father did not exactly agree, but we came to an understanding, and the young boy was able to participate in the project. Waiting for the perfect snowfalls and the perfect budding spring mornings, often having trouble getting the young child out of his house and into the woods, we spent many hours in the forest of Château-d’Oex. 

When the chosen tree was eventually cut down for Christmas, my husband, Etienne Delessert, posed as the lumberjack.

For the interior shots of the abandoned tree after Christmas, we worked in the attic of an old farmhouse and used museum specimens from the historical museum on the Place Riponne for the rats and the owl. The farmer also knew Marcel, and was proud to help us out. Another Imsand admirer loaned us his garden so we could photograph the sad little tree which was thrown out to dry among all the beautifully blooming flowers. 

As the story ends, our precious tree is burned in the fireplace. Marcel superimposed the face of the child over the burning fire in the fireplace. American reviewers were critical of using a child as a tree which was eventually burned in the fireplace. But the French, German, Spanish, and Catalan editions all received rave reviews. 

These were courageous books to publish at the time. In 2003, the Quality Paperback Book Club issued 10 of the original 20 books in a large compilation edition, which included The Fir Tree.