Walter Wick


Walter Wick is an American artist and photographer best known for the elaborate images in two series of picture book activities for young children, I Spy and Can You See What I See?, both published by Scholastic.
Wick was born in Hartford, Connecticut and attended the Paier College of Art. After school he embarked on a career as a commercial photographer and eventually shifted to photo-illustration for books and magazines. He contributed to Scholastic's Let's Find Out and Super Science series and photographed hundreds of mass-market magazine covers. He also created photographic puzzles for Games magazine.
In 1991, Wick began a collaboration with writer Jean Marzollo on the enormously successful I Spy search-and-find picture books. Eight original titles were produced and millions of copies sold.
Wick received the Boston Globe-Horn Book first prize for non-fiction for his book A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder. His book Walter Wick's Optical Tricks was named one of the year's "best illustrated books" by The New York Times. In 2003 Wick and his wife purchased an abandoned 1920 firehouse from the city of Hartford and renovated the building to become a new studio for his artwork. Wick's collection of work, Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos, and Toys in the Attic, continues to exhibit in museums across the country including the Vero Beach Museum of Art, the Shelburne Museum and Brigham Young University Museum of Art.

Selected publications