Tag Archives: dollhouse

Keep Doing You

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million times again. Own what you do. Have confidence in your passions. Just because someone else doesn’t understand it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue it or that you should hide it.

I recently read this article. A man rediscovered his childhood love of miniature soldiers during quarantine. With his job back on, and Zoom meetings in full force, rather than let his coworkers see his miniature war build behind him on Zoom, he stored away his passion. But then, he wrote about the experience. Some part of him is proud of it, but he wanted to distance himself a bit. Maybe his coworkers don’t look up his name or read his articles, it’s hard to say.

Figure kneels at dollhouse in all grey environment, toy photograph by Tourmaline .
Monochrome 9

There’s been multiple articles about people discovering miniature photography in quarantine, and they’re being praised – here for example, and rightfully so, but shouldn’t that open the door for more people to, at minimum, pursue a similar passion?Continue reading “Keep Doing You”

The Standout Dollhouses of 2020 – so far

Click the names to find out more and comment below what you think should be on this list!

I’ll reblog with more tiny standouts as the year progresses.

Dior Autumn-Winter 2020-2021 Haute Couture Collection

Dior Autumn-Winter 2020-2021 Haute Couture CollectionContinue reading “The Standout Dollhouses of 2020 – so far”

Small Scale Documentaries & Reality Shows You Should Watch

Miniature and toy documentaries and reality shows you should definitely check out, listed by streaming service.

Vimeo

1. A Pathway of Crumbs

“the life and work of Kristin Baybars, a central figure within the toy-making community since the 1960s.”

2. Dollhouse

A house of dolls and their dollmaker.

Continue reading “Small Scale Documentaries & Reality Shows You Should Watch”

Focusing on Toes

I first published this post on Toy Photographers 6/29/17. I've made a few minor edits here.

I love toy photographs that make me do a double take. The ones that just look so very real. Bringing toys to life is such an intriguing ambition that many of us share and finding new ways to do so really gets me motivated.

The six image narrative project has me thinking about images I’ve created in series in the past. Some I plan and then shoot all at once, or in sequence over the course of a day, week, month, etc. Others develop more slowly. I have an idea I return to, or a figure that turns into a muse. And with that figure and idea I create one image, then some time later another, until a series forms.

At one point, this took the form of melancholy, and in that a doll and her toes. Or maybe the key is that most of my work is self portraiture, and I insist on bare feet in my real life as often as possible. Continue reading “Focusing on Toes”

A Personal Connection to a Toy

On the heels of my ‘Own What You Do‘ post, it only seems appropriate to talk about my bonds formed with photo props (in this case toys).

Each of my pieces is in some way a self portrait, feelings vomited onto the page (or maybe the camera sensor, the miniature scene, however you want to see it.) The items I use to create those moments, especially the ones I use over and over, come to hold a very high importance.

My dining room is my art studio, and by art studio I mean 2 tables, one with 2 dollhouses, the other with a pop up table top photo studio. Underneath is storage, mostly contained in plastic drawers, but some being larger parked toy pieces. Now, picture a small child coming into that space. Are they going to see it as a hands-off artistic space? Absolutely not. It’s a toy room…

Continue reading “A Personal Connection to a Toy”

2012, A Look Back

While certainly not the only images of note that I created in 2012, I began this blog in July of that year and am going to go with the assumption that the images I chose to share here were some of my best. I have delved deeper in my collegiate and prior photo history, and while I appreciate those images for where they’ve led me, I can’t say they’re good, so I’l stick with showing off the below.

2012 was my junior year of college. I had firmly decided that miniatures were going to continue to be a part of my photographic work, but was largely creating for course assignments. That summer I studied abroad in Italy, and prior to arriving, knew my main photo goal was going to be photographing the street-sold souvenirs alongside their full size counterparts.

2012 was also the year that my dad wrote a book and had me create the cover. Only my second ever book cover, and I enjoyed having relative freedom with how I chose to depict his words.

Let me know what you think.  Check out my 2017 post here.

Continue reading “2012, A Look Back”

Creating Emotional Toy Photographs

Photography is all about light, composition and, most importantly, emotion. – Larry Wilder

I aim to make emotive photos that elicit an emotional response in the viewer. Whether I’m successful in that or not is really up to you, but I feel, to a degree I am.

It starts with emotions I feel poured out into the photo. Lighting, color, blur, setting, posing, all play their part to then make that vision a reality however.

So here’s how I go about this task.

Figures

Fog

I tend to return to figures without facial expressions and with limited detail. The more blank the figure, the more I feel the viewer can place themselves within the story. The human mind is wired to find faces, and human features. So as the photographer, I don’t have to offer much in the way of human iconography in order to get the viewer involved – bringing their own experiences to the scene before them.Continue reading “Creating Emotional Toy Photographs”

In Miniature by Simon Garfield, A Review

“We bring things down to size to understand and appreciate them.”

In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World comes to us from Simon Garfield , a journalist and non-fiction author, who writes on a variety of topics.

In Miniature is a deep dive into the significant miniatures of history, organized into chapters by miniature type.

Continue reading “In Miniature by Simon Garfield, A Review”