With all the new viewers to my blog, thanks to the publication of the Current Working Toy Photographers Listing, I thought it might be useful to have a master post of my most visited, most useful, most informative posts.
Welcome! I’ve been making photos since about 2004, and have been making photos with toys since 2008. I’ve been fervently researching the history of this practice for the past 5 years or so (but started my research in 2012) and have found evidence that toy photography dates back to at least 1898 with connections all the way back to the invention of photography.
So here I write about toy photography history, general art creation and my own art creation. Hopefully you’ll find some info below useful or interesting. Let me know what you think.
Some of these posts are dated and need updating, but they all have good bones nonetheless.
My qualifications – I’m interested and pretty good at research, but also I have BFA in fine art with a focus on photography and minors in art history and education (2 credits away from a 3rd minor in psychology, but I decided to graduate instead). I’m a full time product photographer, worked previously as a photographer at a toy company, an event photographer for a university, worked as admin in that same universities legal office and take commissions on occasion for toy photography based work.
History of Toy Photography
- How Toy Photography has Changed Over Time: 1898 to Present Day
- The History of Toy Photography
- Vogue and Toy Photography
- The War Films Made with Toys
- The Toy Photo that Fooled the World for 60 Years
- Toy Photos of War that Fooled the World for 50 Years
- The Staged Photos that Fooled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the World, for Nearly 70 years
- Surrealist Figure Photographers of the Mid 1900s
- Where Toy Photography Got it’s Wings: David Levinthal at SAAM
- Historic Dabbling in the World of Toys – Bahaus, Fotografia Metafisica, Surreal
- Hans Bellmer – A Doll Day Feature
- A Toy Photography Assignment from Focus On Photography
- Instant Film and Toy Photography
- My Ongoing Search for the Earliest Toy Photograph
More History
- The History of Faked News Photography
- Art and the Search for the Unconscious
- The History and Psychology of Toys
- A Timeline of the History of Miniatures: From Ritual and Religious Object to Plaything and Collectible
- The History of the Still Life
- Miniatures and Control
- Historic Miniature Photography of a Different Variety
Toy Photography Info
- Can I use trademarked toys in my photos?
- 5 Rules of Copyright Every Artist Needs to Know
- 6 Ways to Make Money in Toy Photography
- Who Invented Toy Photography?
- Creating Emotional Toy Photographs
- Photo Focus: The Effectiveness of Blur in Toy Photography
- How to Make Realistic Images of Toys and Miniatures
- Why I Won’t Write a Toy Photography How-to Post
- 10+ FAQs of Toy Photography
- Toy Photography and Nostalgia
- Toy Photography as Art
- Becoming a Master of your Field
- Special Effects in Miniature & Toy Photography
My Recent Work
Where I Began & Where I am Now
Find more here.
