NEW LONDON.- The playful, inventive, and interactive world of best-selling author and photographer Walter Wick is the subject of this exciting exhibition. Walter Wick is the co-creator (with Jean Marzollo) of I Spy and the creator of the Can You See What I See? books for children, published by Scholastic, both of which are long-time national best-sellers. Most of Wick’s books challenge readers to solve visual riddles or puzzles created from the thousands of props he has collected at his studio, a renovated firehouse in the Hartford’s south end. His photographic style, one of precision and detail, will alter the viewer’s sense of visual perception.

For Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic, more than sixty of Wick’s large-scale photographs and examples of his sets will fill the museum’s second floor. “The photographs will be enlarged to five or six feet wide with details, colors and tones not possible in book reproductions,” says Wick, noting that the exhibition will present a “playful sense of scale, space and the unexpected.” He honed his skills while working in a commercial studio for several years, experimenting with mirrors, time exposures, multiple exposures, photo composites and other tricks. “Some 30 years later, all the techniques, tinkering and experiments are folded into my work,” Wick comments.

A very special component of this exhibition will be some of the original sets from Wick’s newest book, Can You See What I See? On a Scary Scary Night, to be published this August by Cartwheel Books, an imprint of Scholastic. In this adaptation of the classic folktale In a Dark, Dark Wood, Walter Wick has taken his photographic technique to new levels in a bold search-and-find book that combines spooky folktales, clever rhymes, and stunning images. Can You See What I See? On a Scary Scary Night will take readers on a hair-raising journey through a creepy town all the way up to the highest tower in an eerie old castle. At several events in September and October, visitors will have the opportunity to meet Walter Wick and have him sign their copy of his new book.

Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic will delight museum visitors and will be a stimulating experience for the eye as well as the mind. Part of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s mission is to respond and to appeal to the regional community. In that spirit, the museum has planned an exciting schedule of programs to accompany this exhibition. The programs are designed to engage people of all ages.