Viewfinder

An absolute stunner of a debut by Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka, Viewfinder is a transformative graphic novel.

A young space traveler, eeny, meeny, miney, moes their way to earth on a whim while out exploring different galaxies. When they arrive they find a planet that has not seen human life in quite some time. Buildings are in various states of disrepair and plant life is beginning to make places wild again. They stumble upon a viewfinder, left behind by the humans, and get a glimpse of what life was like before it wasn’t anymore. Their day is spent exploring different places and meeting different animals. Even though there does not appear to be any human life, there is certainly flora and fauna to discover and perhaps something or someone else.

In this wordless graphic novel, Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka collaborate to take readers on an adventure to Earth, after the devastating effects of some mass event. As a wordless text, readers have ample opportunity to infer what that event could have been: climate change, war, technological advances in space travel, etc. The one thing that is evident in this story is the resilience of the Earth, of the plants and the animals, to regenerate and sustain life. If you have seen any of the nature documentaries on the streaming services, by now you will have seen the healing power of the Earth, when left alone to heal. This story serves as an important reminder of our role in ensuring our planet continues to be a place where we can all flourish.

Being a wordless story means the illustrations must be extra special and there is no shortage of awe in this beautiful book. Salwa Majoka and Christine D.U. Chung’s illustrations are luminescent. Readers will not want to put this book down as the illustrations are so compelling and eye catching, it’s hard to know where to look the first, second, even third time through the story. There is something new to discover each time you open the book and even a new story to be told.