Norman Rockwell’s rosy illustrations of small town American life looked so photographic because his method was to copy photographs that he conceived and meticulously directed, working with various photographers and using friends and neighbors as his models. “The Runaway” (1958) is one example from the recently published Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera (Little, Brown and Company, 2009). More about Rockwell’s photo realism, including an image gallery, is currently on NPR’s web site. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusettes is also hosting an exhibition, and according to NPR, will put Rockwell’s digitized photographic archive online at the end of the year.