This Equals That

This Equals That is a photographic picture book for children aged five and up, made by Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, in which each spread pairs images and invites the reader to work out what connects them.

The relationship between the pictures changes from spread to spread, and the last image links back to the first, so the sequence closes on itself. Aperture describes it as a book for reading together: an adult and a child talk through the connections and come up with their own answers. It also touches on color, shape and number. Aperture published the first edition in 2014 as an 80-page hardcover.

Fulford is a photographer, a cofounder of the non-profit publisher J&L Books and a contributing editor to Blind Spot. His books include Sunbird (2000), Crushed (2003), Raising Frogs for $$$ (2006), The Mushroom Collector (2010), Hotel Oracle (2013), Picture Summer on Kodak Film (MACK, 2020) and Lots of Lots (MACK, 2025). Shopsin is a graphic designer and illustrator who has designed book jackets for authors including Jorge Luis Borges and Vladimir Nabokov.